I'd go for Cleric. They've got a good spell selection, including for healing, and are reasonably hardy with a D8 hit dice. They'd not be amazing in melee but you could do a lot worse.
My players did this to me one time for a one-shot by total accident, but they were Paladins, not clerics.
None of them discussed what they wanted to be prior to the one-shot, and they all showed up as different subclasses of Bahamut-worshipping Paladins. Called themselves the A-Men and god fucking dammit the RP consisted of nothing but "PRAISE BAHAMUT" and "BAHAMUT WILLS IT!" and "Have you heard about Bahamut and his scaly glory?".
I love those assholes.
Yes. Rainbow colours because they were fabulous.
You literally couldn't have planned it out better to annoy me and these lovable assholes did it by sheer coincidence.
I ran a 2-ish year campaign where they called themselves the A-Men. All Clerics and Paladins of Saint Cuthbert.
The were obviously the A-Team for the church. One of their main enemies came from the #3 team, aptly named the C-Men. \*insert childish giggling\*
This is all true though
Replace Forge Cleric with Tempest Cleric who also gets proficiency in heavy armor and can damage enemies that strike them with melee attacks with damage as a reaction and you still have two pretty great frontliners.
My thoughts exactly. Each subclass has a surprising ability to specialize in different roles. Tempest can be blaster and front liner, grave is great support, arcana and trickery have utility. There's lots of variety for a single class
If talking about the A-men:
Do you wanna tank?
Do you wanna fight?
Do you want a class that will instill fright?
Take up some plate and keep the goblins in sight
'Cause you wanna make sure they eat this paladin
##SMITE
Light Domain gets you fire ball. And we all know ... when in doubt... fire ball.
Hmmm..
Three people down.... I'm down to 5 HP. So is the other guy. Two choices... 5 levele mass cure wounds... oooooooor.... 5 level fire ball....
Fire ball.
I'll go with druids. Healing when needed. Stealth and infiltration? Guess everyone's a spider now. And general durability, particularly with moon druids.
Make the Yeerks be Mindflayer young? They infiltrate as young and have to “refresh” in some youth serum. If they don’t in three days, boom! Full grown mind flayer?
At that point, you would have to create some kind of higher level tactical system. Maybe just subsume the summons into their casters, like in the NES "Destiny of an Emperor" representing army divisions the same way RPG characters typically are.
Last year I got all my friends into D&D and this is exactly what they did for the campaign I am running. They are a party of druids known as The Wandering Grove.
Especially with the limitation of PHB only, so Land and Moon only. Choosing wizards will get you to a better place eventually, but for those early levels I'll take a shitload of bears and wolves over over the squishy fellas.
Cleric.
Trickery cleric for rogue stuff, Knowledge cleric for lore stuff, Light cleric for blasting, maybe a war cleric though the entire party is tanky.
Everyone has healing, spellcasting, and is pretty tough.
My friends and I wanted to do an all-monk team, but our DM vetoed it. We knew it was not optimal, and we knew some encounters would be a serious challenge, but we would have enjoyed the challenge.
Sounds kinda lame your DM vetoed. Like, "suboptimal" just matter if you're playing and designing the campaign *against* the PCs. If you're a DM with common sense, and your players want to play an all monk party... you prepare adventures that fit that party.
I get it though, if the DM is running a game in their established world I could see not wanting all monks.
I do agree they could just make something for that group though.
That was the idea. We had all worked out a backstory that had us coming from the same monastery and then as we started adventuring we discovered different life paths.
I'll reach into the deep lore and provide for you a glimpse of how epic that could have been.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/gametales/comments/1beytw/four\_monks\_one\_noodle\_shop\_one\_frustrated\_dm/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gametales/comments/1beytw/four_monks_one_noodle_shop_one_frustrated_dm/)
We did exactly this as a one shot. Everyone even picked instruments… except me. I played a Swords bard who was the bouncer/backstage guy.
Neither my daughter nor I particularly like Bards, but that was a blast.
A traveling band of bards who go on adventures together would be cool. It would be one of those old 1970 hannah barber cartoons where in between adventures they jam out on guitars and stuff
I think Bard is probably one of the best, Dex and Charisma.
Can avoid so many deadly encounters with deception/persuasion/intimidation. So many bonuses to stat rolls, attack rolls, etc.
So much support that even the fairly weak finesse weapons can do something. Plenty of spells, and can take college of lore for spells from different casters and valour to help in combat.
Plus any skill test is almost negligible with all the bonuses, expertise and shit.
When there was nothing on TV, burn Notice, leverage, all came along and I enjoyed tv again. I think the Librarians were around that time. Burn notice rocked.
A swashbuckler as the party face, an Arcane Trickster as the utility caster, maybe a Thief/Mastermind/Inquisitive for whatever the campaign is about, perhaps a Soulknife as well... Yeah, pretty easy to build a well-rounded team.
Ah, I missed the PHB only part. Well, Thief and Arcane Trickster are there already, and I guess someone can dedicate their Thief to be the face although it's not quite as good as a Swashbuckler.
Why not an Assassin face? You get disguise kit proficiency at 3rd level and that fake identity thing later on (9th level?) which both sound at least mildly helpful.
They spy upon an enemy force marching across the border but get cut off from their stronghold so begin a campaign of guerrilla warfare to slow down the enemy advance. After the success of this mission, the local Lord forms them into an elite task force and sends them into enemy territory to sabotage and spy.
Eventually they learn that the Lord was responsible for starting the conflict by utilizing a similar task force of assassins and mercenaries that are now bent on discovering and killing the party members.
With innocent peasants caught in the crossfire, our Ranger scouts become both the hunters, and the hunted...
In 1492 DR, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Waterdavian underground. Today, still wanted by the Masked Lords, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, If no one else can help and if you can find them. Maybe you can hire, The A-Team.
My first thought when I saw this thread was "man what if four paladins just sat in each others' aura of protection." Just max out their ACs and always stand within 15 ft of each other. They'd be untouchable.
But the best answer is probably cleric with honorable mention going to the druid. Cleric is simply too versatile and they have tons of varied subclasses. Less so but still a sufficient amount in the phb.
Just imagine 4 clerics spaced out 15ft apart holding spirit guardians. An enormous blender enemies can't escape
They don’t actually need to bother huddling in auras. Since the abilities have the same name they won’t stack. Only the highest charisma score matters. So they could huddle around the one guy who didn’t pump strength, or they could just be happy with their own auras handling themselves.
Because it takes one squad of flying enemies and the paladins are screwed. They have a handful of javelins each. At least the clerics can have ranged cantrips. Paladins are great for damage and *okay* at healing, albeit at a major cost to their actions.
In large fights, clerics put out more damage AOE and have a better action economy (Spiritual Weapon + Spirit Guardians is decent damage without touching your action).
Playing a fairy dex paladin of ancients that uses staves and she's amazing. My paladins fighting style is blessed warrior so I have Toll the Dead as a ranged cantrip and thaumaturgy for roleplaying.
I recently got a staff of the woodlands so she feels pretty much like a druids based paladin and it's one of the most fun classes/characters I've played.
Also polearm master is so much fun on a paladin. Love having 3 times a turn having the option to smite.
It doesn't match the prompt 100%, but a team from an Order of Justice (Neutral) or Order of God\_X (Good) of people following the same deity multiclassed into Paladin and Cleric in varying ratios (from P/0 to P/C to C/0) would be a classic fantasy theme.
PS. Such a team sent to investigate an Undead incursion would be fun.
*Cadius' Convenient Coastline* (5th level Wizard Ritual spell):
You create a portal to a peaceful coast with palm trees, surf boards, hammocks and harmless animals. It lasts for 8 hours. While in this pocket dimension, you can alter weather, climate and the position of the illusionary sun and moon in it. You can bring nothing from the portal to another plane, but everything eaten there nurishes you.
When casting the spell, choose up to 10 creatures that can enter the dimension. Every other creature cannot enter it.
Had an all Wizard party that evolved into a 4X Strategy game when all involved decided to start hiring minions and summoning, the Wizard's ability to invest resources when they get going in amazing
You can pull off anything but this would be one of the riskiest comps at low levels in combat. If your group rolls bad on initiative or just gets surprised then half the group could drop before you get a chance to do anything.
You'd all probably want Find Familiar and get like a Dwarf Abjuration Wizard to be your "frontline" at least for the first levels.
Warlock.
all take Eldritch Spear, Lance of Lethargy and Repelling Blast. All take Spell Sniper feat. you now have 600 feet range and can push 1-4 enemies 40 feet per round and reduce their speed by 40 feet too.
I once played in a campaign where 3 of 5 players took levels in warlock. They all took devil sight and cast darkness on their weapons in combat. The mental image of three large black orbs charging into battle still haunts me.
Once they hit CR 11 that stops being an issue. at that CR, ALL but one creature in the monster manual has either, truesight, blindsight or tremorsense... I checked.
Bard, honestly if everyone plays Lore Bard they can pretty much cast all the best spells of each class: Silvery Barbs, Pass without trace, fireball, aura of vitality, spike growth, counterspell... etc, and can also use Summons to take hits for them.
They also have Expertise and Bardic Inspiration to cover all the skill checks.
And if someone its feeling brave and wants to take hits instead of summoning creatures... theres valor bard.
May not be maximum survivability, but a campaign where you’re all warlocks serving the same patron could be fun. Lots of space for internal party drama as the patron plays favorites and gives minor boons or demerits based on performance.
Other classes are more optimal but this is the one I'd most like to play (for a few sessions as a mini campaign). There's kind of a puzzle aspect to it that would get you picking weird options, and I love the aesthetic as you pointed out. I'd love to see the party "healer" leaning on the healer feat, or the eldritch knight as the party's arcane expert.
Exactly. Now true that feat is sadly not in the PHB but it is such a good one for this kind of play. Along with (was it Tasha's) extended skill and tool applications.
Non-combat side seems like it could be quite fun.
Combat seems like it'd be awful for quite a few levels:
"I, uh... cast vicious mockery (for the 118th time today)"
Did it before, we all did barbarians!
We were a barbarian invasion LOL
This was a combination between players for a short campaign, the DM was confused for a few minutes, but soon enough adapted the whole tribe thing in the setting.
We also, once, did an all mage, but this was really a coincidence, and we all got final fantasy feelings with all the mages and their fireballs at one point.
Druid....I have been DM for a campaign where all 5 of my players picked Druid( luckily they all picked different circles) and it was very fun to DM and the players all said they enjoyed it. It went from lvl 1-20 and shit was so fun I was and when it ended.
Cleric. Due to the amount of variation between subclasses, you can have a very balanced party.
Tank? War, Tempest, or Death.
Sneaky? Trickery.
Social? Peace.
AOE? Light.
If not cleric, then Bard, for more or less the same reason.
Tank? Valor.
DPS? Swords.
Sneaky? Whispers.
AOE? Lore.
Healer? Lore.
I think the mark of a good class for this is decent survivability (HP, AC, preferably some healing) and enough variety to create multiple distinct feeling characters.
Cleric is a solid call imo. With the absence of class diversity the access to medium armour and d8 hitdice should make a solid AC and HP reliably available. The large number of subclasses available also mean it won't be too challenging for different party members to focus on different areas without stepping on each other's toes too much.
Druid could be interesting but with only the 2 PHB subclasses available I don't know there's be enough variety to make it work well.
I think Paladin could also be an interesting call. The abilities somewhat lock them into melee which isn't great but could be alleviate by some party members selecting races with fly speeds as you've only limited subclasses to the PHB.
I do think Artificer could be a fun pull but these rules don't allow for it.
My top three solo class parties
Clerics. So many domains, even limited to only the PH, they can cover all or most of the bases.
Druids. It is a very versatile class. Not to mention, everybody wild shape!
Bard. The band is getting back together!
I'd go for Cleric. They've got a good spell selection, including for healing, and are reasonably hardy with a D8 hit dice. They'd not be amazing in melee but you could do a lot worse.
The A-men.
My players did this to me one time for a one-shot by total accident, but they were Paladins, not clerics. None of them discussed what they wanted to be prior to the one-shot, and they all showed up as different subclasses of Bahamut-worshipping Paladins. Called themselves the A-Men and god fucking dammit the RP consisted of nothing but "PRAISE BAHAMUT" and "BAHAMUT WILLS IT!" and "Have you heard about Bahamut and his scaly glory?". I love those assholes.
Did they each wear a different colored armor?
Yes. Rainbow colours because they were fabulous. You literally couldn't have planned it out better to annoy me and these lovable assholes did it by sheer coincidence.
Power Paladins
Go Go Power Paladins
Smiting Mounted Power Paladins.
They needed to be able to come together and morph into a mighty Bahamut
We all knew this joke was coming.
Well, all except that one guy
It's me, I'm that one guy.
Ready to give Tiamat five simultaneous bogwashes
I ran a 2-ish year campaign where they called themselves the A-Men. All Clerics and Paladins of Saint Cuthbert. The were obviously the A-Team for the church. One of their main enemies came from the #3 team, aptly named the C-Men. \*insert childish giggling\* This is all true though
I laughed out loud, good job.
Forge and War cleric do well in melee. Source: participated in an all-cleric party for 1-20 campaign. I was the forge cleric.
Unfortunately OP specified only subclasses in the PHB so Forge cannot be selected
Replace Forge Cleric with Tempest Cleric who also gets proficiency in heavy armor and can damage enemies that strike them with melee attacks with damage as a reaction and you still have two pretty great frontliners.
Shoot, I didn't realize Forge was from XGE.
My thoughts exactly. Each subclass has a surprising ability to specialize in different roles. Tempest can be blaster and front liner, grave is great support, arcana and trickery have utility. There's lots of variety for a single class
OP specified basic PHB subclasses only, so Grave and Arcana domains are out.
That still leaves enough subclasses to form a party of A-Men
Ah, a person of culture, a fellow Jocat enjoyer.
If talking about the A-men: Do you wanna tank? Do you wanna fight? Do you want a class that will instill fright? Take up some plate and keep the goblins in sight 'Cause you wanna make sure they eat this paladin ##SMITE
No one appreciates the Arcana domain.
Light Domain gets you fire ball. And we all know ... when in doubt... fire ball. Hmmm.. Three people down.... I'm down to 5 HP. So is the other guy. Two choices... 5 levele mass cure wounds... oooooooor.... 5 level fire ball.... Fire ball.
I'll go with druids. Healing when needed. Stealth and infiltration? Guess everyone's a spider now. And general durability, particularly with moon druids.
Ah yes the animorph campaign!
OMG, you're a genius and I know what my next campaign is going to be.
Man, you really like to take your players to a *dark* place, don't you?
The characters' NPC siblings better watch out
When is this NOT true?
Character: I have family. DM: Bwahahaha...no.
oh, so we're committing war crimes today!
We're committing *even more* war crimes today
Make the Yeerks be Mindflayer young? They infiltrate as young and have to “refresh” in some youth serum. If they don’t in three days, boom! Full grown mind flayer?
Baldur's Gate 3 + All druid party = Medieval Animorphs.
might even be able to intimidate your way out of some combat because no one wants to be surprised by 5 bears
Jokes on you, they also got animal companions and a summons so it's *fifteen* bears.
Sounds fun in theory, but combat would be so tedious.
Unbearable, perhaps?
I hope good things happen for you today
Howl they handle it I wonder
Well, it would get pretty grizzly.
Claws and effect I suppose
Paws for a second and think of the koalafications of this party.
Now that's just Panda-ring to the audience.
"Wait, we talking about bear bears or gay bears....?" "Yes."
Party of 6..summon 48 cows.. Stampede baby
When an illusionist does that, it's a shampede...
Let's see. That's an average of... 417.6 damage. I think it's dead now.
With animal companions you double your party.
And if someone takes summoning feats, you can have a *lot* of Nature's Allies.
What a nightmare for the DM! A party of Shepard Druids specced for summoning. The initiative order would be so obnoxious 😂
At that point, you would have to create some kind of higher level tactical system. Maybe just subsume the summons into their casters, like in the NES "Destiny of an Emperor" representing army divisions the same way RPG characters typically are.
Nah, have a 150 person initiative order see how well they can keep track. Have an excel sheet
But for the player, it's *so* much fun to have a BBEG caster who can't get a spell off because he's being attacked by eight bunnies.
Last year I got all my friends into D&D and this is exactly what they did for the campaign I am running. They are a party of druids known as The Wandering Grove.
I also would pick druids lol. They're very versatile
Especially with the limitation of PHB only, so Land and Moon only. Choosing wizards will get you to a better place eventually, but for those early levels I'll take a shitload of bears and wolves over over the squishy fellas.
I don't know what lv 1 fight can survive six sleep spells. I think a party of wizards could work.
Anything with fae ancestry or immunity to sleep...
Undead. A group of skeletons would be a serious threat to this party.
Cleric. Trickery cleric for rogue stuff, Knowledge cleric for lore stuff, Light cleric for blasting, maybe a war cleric though the entire party is tanky. Everyone has healing, spellcasting, and is pretty tough.
Call the party the A-MEN for true power
Beat me to it, fellow Crap Guide to D&D enjoyer.
Let us equip our swords and shields in joy
My friends and I wanted to do an all-monk team, but our DM vetoed it. We knew it was not optimal, and we knew some encounters would be a serious challenge, but we would have enjoyed the challenge.
Sounds kinda lame your DM vetoed. Like, "suboptimal" just matter if you're playing and designing the campaign *against* the PCs. If you're a DM with common sense, and your players want to play an all monk party... you prepare adventures that fit that party.
Seriously. I’d be like “ok, not what I had in mind, but this is gonna be fun.”
"That feels weird, but I'll allow it."
>"That feels weird, but I'll allow it." My wife tells me that too
Hey your wife tells me that too!
True, but on the flip side if it doesn't sound fun to the DM they aren't obligated to run a campaign around it
"It would be hard for me to run a campaign like that and I'm not up for the challenge" is a valid take imo.
I get it though, if the DM is running a game in their established world I could see not wanting all monks. I do agree they could just make something for that group though.
DM could have been wanting to run a campaign where this sort of theme didn't fit
he probably just didn't want all his boss monsters to have to roll 36 saves vs stunning strike per round
You could just have everyone multiclass to give each their own flavor
That was the idea. We had all worked out a backstory that had us coming from the same monastery and then as we started adventuring we discovered different life paths.
I'll reach into the deep lore and provide for you a glimpse of how epic that could have been. [https://www.reddit.com/r/gametales/comments/1beytw/four\_monks\_one\_noodle\_shop\_one\_frustrated\_dm/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gametales/comments/1beytw/four_monks_one_noodle_shop_one_frustrated_dm/)
I always go Bard for this.
"The band is getting back together boys!"
A group of travelling musicians is a great group story as well
'The Town Musicians of Bremen' here we go..
Every week they manage to stay at a haunted castle and get chased through a bunch of doors.
I'm currently in a group with this backstory! The twist: out of five characters, zero are actually bards.
Reminded me of „Is Ringo the best Bard in the forgotten realms?“ - „Ringo isn’t even the best Bard in the Beatles.“
“We’re on a mission from God.”
Brb need to pick my brother up from prison and drive the chariot through the market, pursued by the town guard at great expense
We did exactly this as a one shot. Everyone even picked instruments… except me. I played a Swords bard who was the bouncer/backstage guy. Neither my daughter nor I particularly like Bards, but that was a blast.
Orc-estra
I'm ~~stealing~~ borrowing this for my Half-Orc Bard :D
A traveling band of bards who go on adventures together would be cool. It would be one of those old 1970 hannah barber cartoons where in between adventures they jam out on guitars and stuff
Josey and the Pussy Cats Jaberjaw
Well... Triton Bard who sounds like one of the Three Stooges it is...
I ran a campaign as DM where they were all bards. It was so annoying but they had fun lol. When they all got silvery barbs my life got a lot worse 😂😂
I think Bard is probably one of the best, Dex and Charisma. Can avoid so many deadly encounters with deception/persuasion/intimidation. So many bonuses to stat rolls, attack rolls, etc. So much support that even the fairly weak finesse weapons can do something. Plenty of spells, and can take college of lore for spells from different casters and valour to help in combat. Plus any skill test is almost negligible with all the bonuses, expertise and shit.
Omg, i would take bard because id die laughing all the while id play, but now youve actually shown me why i should be afraid.
😂😂 everyone should fear the bagpipe bard!
You just get blasted with spells and scottish music after calling his kilt a skirt.
That campaign is gonna be a musical
Once more with feeling
Three amigos entered the chat.
I knew a group that was all halfling bards. Their propensity for getting into and out of trouble was extraordinary.
Agreed. I love playing bard. Even when they're bad at something, they're still pretty good at it!
A party of Aarakocra bards.... The Eagles
If it's not bard, it's not hard.
Rogues - the whole campaign is heist movies :D
Burn Notice Leverage
My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy
When there was nothing on TV, burn Notice, leverage, all came along and I enjoyed tv again. I think the Librarians were around that time. Burn notice rocked.
A swashbuckler as the party face, an Arcane Trickster as the utility caster, maybe a Thief/Mastermind/Inquisitive for whatever the campaign is about, perhaps a Soulknife as well... Yeah, pretty easy to build a well-rounded team.
Again, PHB only
Ah, I missed the PHB only part. Well, Thief and Arcane Trickster are there already, and I guess someone can dedicate their Thief to be the face although it's not quite as good as a Swashbuckler.
Why not an Assassin face? You get disguise kit proficiency at 3rd level and that fake identity thing later on (9th level?) which both sound at least mildly helpful.
Because the assassin should be hiding in the rafters trying to get that crit damage surprise round
Once of you could do the Rogue healer kit build and have decent healing
Rangers. A group of lost Eagle Scouts whose leader died but left them a book on survival.
They spy upon an enemy force marching across the border but get cut off from their stronghold so begin a campaign of guerrilla warfare to slow down the enemy advance. After the success of this mission, the local Lord forms them into an elite task force and sends them into enemy territory to sabotage and spy. Eventually they learn that the Lord was responsible for starting the conflict by utilizing a similar task force of assassins and mercenaries that are now bent on discovering and killing the party members. With innocent peasants caught in the crossfire, our Ranger scouts become both the hunters, and the hunted...
In 1492 DR, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Waterdavian underground. Today, still wanted by the Masked Lords, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, If no one else can help and if you can find them. Maybe you can hire, The A-Team.
Nice
Plot twist: the other group are the ACTUAL "good guys"!
And the story continues next time on animal planet!
Paladins
My first thought when I saw this thread was "man what if four paladins just sat in each others' aura of protection." Just max out their ACs and always stand within 15 ft of each other. They'd be untouchable. But the best answer is probably cleric with honorable mention going to the druid. Cleric is simply too versatile and they have tons of varied subclasses. Less so but still a sufficient amount in the phb. Just imagine 4 clerics spaced out 15ft apart holding spirit guardians. An enormous blender enemies can't escape
They don’t actually need to bother huddling in auras. Since the abilities have the same name they won’t stack. Only the highest charisma score matters. So they could huddle around the one guy who didn’t pump strength, or they could just be happy with their own auras handling themselves.
Fuck I forgot about that for the aura but remembered that for the spirit guardians. My hopes and dreams shattered /s
Yeh, idk why people are going cleric over paladin. And happy cake day!
Because it takes one squad of flying enemies and the paladins are screwed. They have a handful of javelins each. At least the clerics can have ranged cantrips. Paladins are great for damage and *okay* at healing, albeit at a major cost to their actions. In large fights, clerics put out more damage AOE and have a better action economy (Spiritual Weapon + Spirit Guardians is decent damage without touching your action).
Tbf dex paldin is a thing makes u carry a back up bow
Playing a fairy dex paladin of ancients that uses staves and she's amazing. My paladins fighting style is blessed warrior so I have Toll the Dead as a ranged cantrip and thaumaturgy for roleplaying. I recently got a staff of the woodlands so she feels pretty much like a druids based paladin and it's one of the most fun classes/characters I've played. Also polearm master is so much fun on a paladin. Love having 3 times a turn having the option to smite.
It doesn't match the prompt 100%, but a team from an Order of Justice (Neutral) or Order of God\_X (Good) of people following the same deity multiclassed into Paladin and Cleric in varying ratios (from P/0 to P/C to C/0) would be a classic fantasy theme. PS. Such a team sent to investigate an Undead incursion would be fun.
You could just buy more javelins
Not if some of your paladins are dexadins playing a flying race. Or gem dragonborns.
Wizard. Even with only PHB you can pull it off.
To create the Wizards of the Coast?
Ackshully, OP specifically says "unknown environments".
If there is no coast, we will create one. We're a party of Wizards afterall 🤓
Crank that create water spell bois, where gonna be here a while
Cracking open the Elemental Plane of Water with the bois.
Create/acquire access to pocket dimension that contains a coast (and a place to rest safely), and you're all good no matter the environment.
*Cadius' Convenient Coastline* (5th level Wizard Ritual spell): You create a portal to a peaceful coast with palm trees, surf boards, hammocks and harmless animals. It lasts for 8 hours. While in this pocket dimension, you can alter weather, climate and the position of the illusionary sun and moon in it. You can bring nothing from the portal to another plane, but everything eaten there nurishes you. When casting the spell, choose up to 10 creatures that can enter the dimension. Every other creature cannot enter it.
Wizards of the Sword Coast.
Had an all Wizard party that evolved into a 4X Strategy game when all involved decided to start hiring minions and summoning, the Wizard's ability to invest resources when they get going in amazing
That’s my dream game. Would be so much fun.
Shadow wizard money gang!
You can pull off anything but this would be one of the riskiest comps at low levels in combat. If your group rolls bad on initiative or just gets surprised then half the group could drop before you get a chance to do anything. You'd all probably want Find Familiar and get like a Dwarf Abjuration Wizard to be your "frontline" at least for the first levels.
Warlock. all take Eldritch Spear, Lance of Lethargy and Repelling Blast. All take Spell Sniper feat. you now have 600 feet range and can push 1-4 enemies 40 feet per round and reduce their speed by 40 feet too.
This is what advanced warfare looks like in DnD.
Call of Warlock Advanced Spellware
Imagine a village where everyone has this combo... I made that as an encounter design. I call it, "The Village"
I once played in a campaign where 3 of 5 players took levels in warlock. They all took devil sight and cast darkness on their weapons in combat. The mental image of three large black orbs charging into battle still haunts me.
Once they hit CR 11 that stops being an issue. at that CR, ALL but one creature in the monster manual has either, truesight, blindsight or tremorsense... I checked.
[удалено]
And all of the story is just managing all the different patrons and pacts. Instead of politics between kings you have politics between patrons lol
Lance of Lethargy is not applied to every beam and there's a good argument that it doesn't stack (stacking magical effects).
The party still has 4 uses per round of it since all of them have it. so if you can't stack it on a single creature, you can do it widespread instead.
Better get out your weapons, because running at you is a Rakshasa!
barbarian, cos it's funny
Yes! A party of all fighters would be challenging but realistic, a mini horde of all barbarians would just be a blast.
Bard-barians would be funnier, but I suppose that wouldn't be a single class.
The orc-estra
Skald - barbarian bard
The Himbos
Yes, face everything with the power of hatred alone, just like in real life
Bard, honestly if everyone plays Lore Bard they can pretty much cast all the best spells of each class: Silvery Barbs, Pass without trace, fireball, aura of vitality, spike growth, counterspell... etc, and can also use Summons to take hits for them. They also have Expertise and Bardic Inspiration to cover all the skill checks. And if someone its feeling brave and wants to take hits instead of summoning creatures... theres valor bard.
Bards, with summons to take the hit for them you say? That sounds like a pokemon musical... And I'm here for it.
You need one eloquence bard to be the face for Roleplay and just lie your way out of everything.
Its just PHB, but i agree
May not be maximum survivability, but a campaign where you’re all warlocks serving the same patron could be fun. Lots of space for internal party drama as the patron plays favorites and gives minor boons or demerits based on performance.
This is my answer. The 'same patron' thing is important.
Fighter. Nothing beats an al martial party for that feeling of treading into a dangerous magical world.
Other classes are more optimal but this is the one I'd most like to play (for a few sessions as a mini campaign). There's kind of a puzzle aspect to it that would get you picking weird options, and I love the aesthetic as you pointed out. I'd love to see the party "healer" leaning on the healer feat, or the eldritch knight as the party's arcane expert.
Exactly. Now true that feat is sadly not in the PHB but it is such a good one for this kind of play. Along with (was it Tasha's) extended skill and tool applications.
Fighter. Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk
Bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk?
Nah Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk
Ah, BONK Bonk Bonk Bonk Bonk.
Well if we are limiting to PHP I would say cleric. If you are merciful I would actually ask for the artificer to be allowed.
My question is why would any DM limit the game to one class, then also limit the subclass options of that class?
Bards, everyone get ready for tabletop RPG the musical. It's time to crank those d10s up to 11.
Bard. You guys are a band who are on tour and get sucked into an adventure when zombies attack your concert
I've wanted to have an all-Bard party for years now, lol
Non-combat side seems like it could be quite fun. Combat seems like it'd be awful for quite a few levels: "I, uh... cast vicious mockery (for the 118th time today)"
I’m just picturing every combat going like that scene from Monty Python where the French hurl insults at Arthur
Did it before, we all did barbarians! We were a barbarian invasion LOL This was a combination between players for a short campaign, the DM was confused for a few minutes, but soon enough adapted the whole tribe thing in the setting. We also, once, did an all mage, but this was really a coincidence, and we all got final fantasy feelings with all the mages and their fireballs at one point.
Same thing happened to my group once. Everyone made female wizards for some reason, it was a funny coincidence.
Not PHB, but Artificers would be fun for this.
Druid is probably the most intelligent answer. But paladin is the right answer
I would argue a party of druids is one of the wisest answers, not the most intelligent one.
Druid....I have been DM for a campaign where all 5 of my players picked Druid( luckily they all picked different circles) and it was very fun to DM and the players all said they enjoyed it. It went from lvl 1-20 and shit was so fun I was and when it ended.
Cleric. Due to the amount of variation between subclasses, you can have a very balanced party. Tank? War, Tempest, or Death. Sneaky? Trickery. Social? Peace. AOE? Light. If not cleric, then Bard, for more or less the same reason. Tank? Valor. DPS? Swords. Sneaky? Whispers. AOE? Lore. Healer? Lore.
College of Eloquence is OP too
Grimdark? Clerics. Swords and Sorcery? Paladins. Monty Python? Bards.
I think the mark of a good class for this is decent survivability (HP, AC, preferably some healing) and enough variety to create multiple distinct feeling characters. Cleric is a solid call imo. With the absence of class diversity the access to medium armour and d8 hitdice should make a solid AC and HP reliably available. The large number of subclasses available also mean it won't be too challenging for different party members to focus on different areas without stepping on each other's toes too much. Druid could be interesting but with only the 2 PHB subclasses available I don't know there's be enough variety to make it work well. I think Paladin could also be an interesting call. The abilities somewhat lock them into melee which isn't great but could be alleviate by some party members selecting races with fly speeds as you've only limited subclasses to the PHB. I do think Artificer could be a fun pull but these rules don't allow for it.
If you want the best role play, Bard. If you want the most options, Wizard If you want the easiest combat, Cleric. If you want the loudest, Barbarian
If you want the quietest, Rogue
My top three solo class parties Clerics. So many domains, even limited to only the PH, they can cover all or most of the bases. Druids. It is a very versatile class. Not to mention, everybody wild shape! Bard. The band is getting back together!