Party composition advice please!

[Danyel]

Going to play with my wife and son. I would like some advice on build and classes as I am not familiar with 5e nor this game. I do have Unfinished Business mod set up on all 3 PC and we enabled pretty much all feat, classes, races, subclasses etc and we have all dlc.

Any sites with good builds? I am not averse to min maxing or multiclassing if I have a good guide to follow.

So far, we left party size to 4, I made:

Wiz ~ will go court mage (this will be my char), also doing sellsword background for the armor

Pala ~ was going 2hand fighting with greatsword/greataxes timor build (son want to play paladin though and will make his own to replace this one)

For the other two I am thinking:

Battle cleric ~ I read that they dont get heavy armor so what start lvl fighter than switch to all cleric levels? Could use some build advice and would like to follow a guide so to speak

Rogue ~ looking for a character to disarm traps, pick locks, looking to dual wield, my wife will play this character. Again would like a guild.


I have looked at the guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2524237538 "Quick "Cheeze" party for beginners" not sure how good this is though?

I am open to suggestion or link to other site that have build guides that I can look over to see what appeals to me since I am sure there more than one build that could be fun or viable for the above classes types and again if there a good guild not averse to multi classing.

Also not averse to watching build videos if there are any good players making some that are up to date etc.

Last time I did any min maxing was in DDO, which was based on 3.5e, from like 2006 to 2012 or so... duinno what i am doing in 5e tbh.

[Zoli]

Battle cleric is a strong choice. Healing word is a key spell. Pick the sylvan elf race and Flawless concentration feat at level 4. That's all. Your wiz will need this, too. You might get the academic background for the cleric in the basic COTM campaign, because it gives an additional bonus with a faction.

The 4th character can be anything. Your wife might consider ranger. It's a more enjoyable role especially the archery, and it doesn't require to know the finicky positioning rules for backstabs. Lowlife background gives thieves tools skill.
Hunters mark is the key spell for rangers.

[6Taylor4]

I don't think anyone should be told what character to play in a game where you can make your own. My suggestion would be to take a user-built mod that is straight-forward combat, and use it as an arena for testing your character builds in a group; why try to build the best Uber Party, when you may have more fun just being yourselves (or alter-ego-selves)? Take 4 wizards, take 4 rangers - they can do almost anything with proper skills and background) experiment, fool around; the serious gaming comes later, when you've all got the character you want and are comfortable with their abilities, then choose a more involved mod/dlc.
The family dynamic must add an interesting layer to the game; I've played with friends, and had a wonderful time - families, not so much, as other issues find their way into the games sometimes; I know the last dungeon I ran collapsed into chaos and self-immolated, as it was a couples dungeon, and it actually resulted in one couple breaking up, so keep it light, and friendly! Happy Dungeoning!

[Frostfeather]

I'd consider being a Sorcerer to Twin Haste on your son's/wife's characters. This would work better if she's a Ranger or something instead of a Rogue though since Rogue only gets Sneak Attack once per round.

Anyone can potentially do traps. What's really extremely strong in Solasta is starting fights with a Stealthy character. Just another reason for Ranger since they get the Pass Without Trace spell.

[BigRockWall]

My 2 cents.

Sorc - twin+heighten in that order, sellsword. I like dragon the best especially if you are going to do PoI lvl 12-16 campaign for the concentration free flight and better spell selection.

Battle cleric - i still like sellsword for acrobatics proficiency for jumps in combat, but other options for faction bonus work. Half orc or Sylvan elf, both have value. Dwarf is a trap that just makes you move slow for no good reason.

judgement pally - dex based, xbow +sword and board, he goes pew pew with the occasional smite spam. also lowlife background. Judgement pally has + damage aura and can self haste. be sure to grab the take aim feat so you can still shoot at stuff when there is an enemy next to you (you could just melee smite them, but sometimes you need to prioritize a ranged target/spell caster etc)

stone barbarian for tanking. they get free temp HP every turn, and reckless attack makes you actually pull aggro. Berzerker kinda a trap as you only get 1 bonus actions, so just take follow up strike and you're better off as stone.

This is the min/maxed party comp for vanilla IMO. But again, just my opinion. The idea being you typically stay mostly together. Battle cleric gives +1 to pretty much everything if you stand next to it, and judgement pally gives a bunch of damage to any party member thats within a couple tiles. This bonus affects attack spell damage too, not just melee and ranged physical attacks. Toss in spirit guardians and you basically cannot lose like this.

The reason I mention vanilla is to warn you......... Unfinished business mod is not the most stable for co-op. Yeah, it works. But be ready for tons of reloads and crashes. Your mileage may vary, but you've been warned.

[Frostfeather]

That's a good point: UB probably isn't worth using in this case since they're not planning on using much of what it adds.

I almost always recommend UB to solo players, but not so much for groups.

[Danyel]

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

My 2 cents.

Sorc - twin+heighten in that order, sellsword. I like dragon the best especially if you are going to do PoI lvl 12-16 campaign for the concentration free flight and better spell selection.

Battle cleric - i still like sellsword for acrobatics proficiency for jumps in combat, but other options for faction bonus work. Half orc or Sylvan elf, both have value. Dwarf is a trap that just makes you move slow for no good reason.

judgement pally - dex based, xbow +sword and board, he goes pew pew with the occasional smite spam. also lowlife background. Judgement pally has + damage aura and can self haste. be sure to grab the take aim feat so you can still shoot at stuff when there is an enemy next to you (you could just melee smite them, but sometimes you need to prioritize a ranged target/spell caster etc)

stone barbarian for tanking. they get free temp HP every turn, and reckless attack makes you actually pull aggro. Berzerker kinda a trap as you only get 1 bonus actions, so just take follow up strike and you're better off as stone.

This is the min/maxed party comp for vanilla IMO. But again, just my opinion. The idea being you typically stay mostly together. Battle cleric gives +1 to pretty much everything if you stand next to it, and judgement pally gives a bunch of damage to any party member thats within a couple tiles. This bonus affects attack spell damage too, not just melee and ranged physical attacks. Toss in spirit guardians and you basically cannot lose like this.

The reason I mention vanilla is to warn you......... Unfinished business mod is not the most stable for co-op. Yeah, it works. But be ready for tons of reloads and crashes. Your mileage may vary, but you've been warned.

Good to know about UB, hopefully it doesnt crash us too often, guess I will see lol.

For the cleric does the lower movement really make it that much worse?

I was looking at hill dwarf for the extra hp per level and plus con/wis, poison resis. It also ignore penalties if using heavy armor.

Sylvan only really seems to have that extra movement?

I was also thinking taking 1 lvl of fighter to get heavy armor prof

[Frostfeather]

If you're not using UB you won't be able to multiclass, but I wouldn't delay your Cleric spell progression for heavy armor anyway. Just spend a Feat on it if you really want it.

[BigRockWall]

Originally posted by Danyel:

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

My 2 cents.

Sorc - twin+heighten in that order, sellsword. I like dragon the best especially if you are going to do PoI lvl 12-16 campaign for the concentration free flight and better spell selection.

Battle cleric - i still like sellsword for acrobatics proficiency for jumps in combat, but other options for faction bonus work. Half orc or Sylvan elf, both have value. Dwarf is a trap that just makes you move slow for no good reason.

judgement pally - dex based, xbow +sword and board, he goes pew pew with the occasional smite spam. also lowlife background. Judgement pally has + damage aura and can self haste. be sure to grab the take aim feat so you can still shoot at stuff when there is an enemy next to you (you could just melee smite them, but sometimes you need to prioritize a ranged target/spell caster etc)

stone barbarian for tanking. they get free temp HP every turn, and reckless attack makes you actually pull aggro. Berzerker kinda a trap as you only get 1 bonus actions, so just take follow up strike and you're better off as stone.

This is the min/maxed party comp for vanilla IMO. But again, just my opinion. The idea being you typically stay mostly together. Battle cleric gives +1 to pretty much everything if you stand next to it, and judgement pally gives a bunch of damage to any party member thats within a couple tiles. This bonus affects attack spell damage too, not just melee and ranged physical attacks. Toss in spirit guardians and you basically cannot lose like this.

The reason I mention vanilla is to warn you......... Unfinished business mod is not the most stable for co-op. Yeah, it works. But be ready for tons of reloads and crashes. Your mileage may vary, but you've been warned.

Good to know about UB, hopefully it doesnt crash us too often, guess I will see lol.

For the cleric does the lower movement really make it that much worse?

I was looking at hill dwarf for the extra hp per level and plus con/wis, poison resis. It also ignore penalties if using heavy armor.

Sylvan only really seems to have that extra movement?

I was also thinking taking 1 lvl of fighter to get heavy armor prof

Sylvan = movement, dex, and wis. If you are using heavy armor, the dex doesnt matter. Until then, the free dex is nice. Half Orc gives you the most DPS, which is why you are taking battle cleric right? The extra HP aren't that big a deal honestly if you are building and gearing right. They aren't irrelevant, just less important to me.

The key is that the Battle cleric does very much care about movement. The core of a battle cleric is 2 attacks per turn plus spirit guardian, or 3 attacks per turn self hastened. That plus the +1 to everything aura that requires being next to the cleric makes them very positioning dependent.

[6Taylor4]

Originally posted by Danyel:

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

My 2 cents.

Sorc - twin+heighten in that order, sellsword. I like dragon the best especially if you are going to do PoI lvl 12-16 campaign for the concentration free flight and better spell selection.

Battle cleric - i still like sellsword for acrobatics proficiency for jumps in combat, but other options for faction bonus work. Half orc or Sylvan elf, both have value. Dwarf is a trap that just makes you move slow for no good reason.

judgement pally - dex based, xbow +sword and board, he goes pew pew with the occasional smite spam. also lowlife background. Judgement pally has + damage aura and can self haste. be sure to grab the take aim feat so you can still shoot at stuff when there is an enemy next to you (you could just melee smite them, but sometimes you need to prioritize a ranged target/spell caster etc)

stone barbarian for tanking. they get free temp HP every turn, and reckless attack makes you actually pull aggro. Berzerker kinda a trap as you only get 1 bonus actions, so just take follow up strike and you're better off as stone.

This is the min/maxed party comp for vanilla IMO. But again, just my opinion. The idea being you typically stay mostly together. Battle cleric gives +1 to pretty much everything if you stand next to it, and judgement pally gives a bunch of damage to any party member thats within a couple tiles. This bonus affects attack spell damage too, not just melee and ranged physical attacks. Toss in spirit guardians and you basically cannot lose like this.

The reason I mention vanilla is to warn you......... Unfinished business mod is not the most stable for co-op. Yeah, it works. But be ready for tons of reloads and crashes. Your mileage may vary, but you've been warned.

Good to know about UB, hopefully it doesnt crash us too often, guess I will see lol.

For the cleric does the lower movement really make it that much worse?

I was looking at hill dwarf for the extra hp per level and plus con/wis, poison resis. It also ignore penalties if using heavy armor.

Sylvan only really seems to have that extra movement?

I was also thinking taking 1 lvl of fighter to get heavy armor prof

You might want to rethink the tight-group strategy, once you encounter NPCs with area spells, just sayin'.

[BigRockWall]

Originally posted by 6Taylor4:

Originally posted by Danyel:

Good to know about UB, hopefully it doesnt crash us too often, guess I will see lol.

For the cleric does the lower movement really make it that much worse?

I was looking at hill dwarf for the extra hp per level and plus con/wis, poison resis. It also ignore penalties if using heavy armor.

Sylvan only really seems to have that extra movement?

I was also thinking taking 1 lvl of fighter to get heavy armor prof

You might want to rethink the tight-group strategy, once you encounter NPCs with area spells, just sayin'.

Counterspell and critical thinking. Obviously the biggest danger to a tight group is AOE, so deal with it first. This game isn't hard enough to need a min maxed party. OP asked for one, and this one is my default cataclysm cake walk party

[Danyel]

Originally posted by night4:

If you're not using UB you won't be able to multiclass, but I wouldn't delay your Cleric spell progression for heavy armor anyway. Just spend a Feat on it if you really want it.

We do have UB installed ans synced. We have a whole lots of things enabled in it. I was thinking of trying sorc on my own single player game or further down the line and the twin spell stuff sounds interesting, its not something I am familiar with.

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

...snip...


Sylvan = movement, dex, and wis. If you are using heavy armor, the dex doesnt matter. Until then, the free dex is nice. Half Orc gives you the most DPS, which is why you are taking battle cleric right? The extra HP aren't that big a deal honestly if you are building and gearing right. They aren't irrelevant, just less important to me.

The key is that the Battle cleric does very much care about movement. The core of a battle cleric is 2 attacks per turn plus spirit guardian, or 3 attacks per turn self hastened. That plus the +1 to everything aura that requires being next to the cleric makes them very positioning dependent.

The idea was to have the pally and cleric up front, and in areas with doors parking in the door if possible, and have my wiz in the back lobbing spells and for my wife char I think I will try that ranger trapper etc as explained in the cheezy party I linked above in my OP.

For the last character I was thinking having my wife go twf but will depend if she likes that or wants to go more bows and such. The idea with the ranger was to maybe to use invisibility on it and also fly seems like it might be fun to use too

[BigRockWall]

Originally posted by Danyel:

Originally posted by night4:

If you're not using UB you won't be able to multiclass, but I wouldn't delay your Cleric spell progression for heavy armor anyway. Just spend a Feat on it if you really want it.

We do have UB installed ans synced. We have a whole lots of things enabled in it.

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

...snip...


Sylvan = movement, dex, and wis. If you are using heavy armor, the dex doesnt matter. Until then, the free dex is nice. Half Orc gives you the most DPS, which is why you are taking battle cleric right? The extra HP aren't that big a deal honestly if you are building and gearing right. They aren't irrelevant, just less important to me.

The key is that the Battle cleric does very much care about movement. The core of a battle cleric is 2 attacks per turn plus spirit guardian, or 3 attacks per turn self hastened. That plus the +1 to everything aura that requires being next to the cleric makes them very positioning dependent.

The idea was to have the pally and cleric up front, and in areas with doors parking in the door if possible, and have my wiz in the back lobbing spells and for my wife char I think I will try that ranger trapper etc as explained in the cheezy party I linked above in my OP.

For the last character I was thinking having my wife go twf but will depend if she likes that or wants to go more bows and such. The idea with the ranger was to maybe to use invisibility on it and also fly seems like it might be fun to use too

For the ranger, if you go with swiftblade you can do both archery and 2wf. The swiftblade main feature is a 2nd extra attack, for 3 total attacks per turn just like a fighter (not including your bonus action for a 4th melee attack). The archer subclass is another trap, because it makes you think you should pick that to use a bow as a ranger. You can, sure. But you could instead be a swiftblade and get just as many attacks with a bow, while also having the option to get that extra attack in melee. Plus battle focus for some smite-like damage on a few turns worth of melee attacks when needed.

TLDR - you really cant go wrong with a bttle cleric + whatever else you wanna add. Even if it's a dwarf.

[Frostfeather]

Court Mage is a bit tanky if you're planning on being in the back. They're best next to an ally to shield them and give them temporary hp.

[Danyel]

Originally posted by night4:

Court Mage is a bit tanky if you're planning on being in the back. They're best next to an ally to shield them and give them temporary hp.

Yeah was thinking of that pally and cleric in front wiz right behind them and ranger doing ranger things, obviously I would try to focus and beat down enemies with AOE attacks first.

[Aldin]

Originally posted by Danyel:

Originally posted by night4:

Court Mage is a bit tanky if you're planning on being in the back. They're best next to an ally to shield them and give them temporary hp.

Yeah was thinking of that pally and cleric in front wiz right behind them and ranger doing ranger things, obviously I would try to focus and beat down enemies with AOE attacks first.

I think it’s worth mentioning that Solasta is very vertical. It will not be unusual to have an enemy directly above your Pally or Cleric and thus adjacent to a Wiz that is immediately behind them. Depending on the Wiz that might or might not be an issue, but you should be aware of it.