Discussion:
5e party for solo
(too old to reply)
Justisaur
2017-05-08 19:07:32 UTC
Permalink
I'm thinking of trying to solo with 5e again now that I've got a bit
more experience with it. I'm trying to decide what characters I want to
fill out a 4 character party (or maybe I should go 5 as I've read it
gets pretty rough with 4 or less, much as my last attempt found.)

I've made a Hill Dwarf Tempest Cleric - I wanted to try a non-healing
focused cleric as that's mostly what I've seen (I did see a Knowledge
domain one which was awesome, but mostly due to amazing luck - she
landed a crit in her first encounter, and almost every single time she
commanded enemy leaders to 'surrender' they failed their save and caused
their subordinates morale to fall apart.)

My 2nd is a Mountain Dwarf Wizard will be Necromancer, I've read people
say the Mountain Dwarf Wizard is good, so wanted to see it in action, I
think a Cleric 1 or 2/Wizard 18 or 19 (heavy armor, some 1st level
healing spells which can be boosted), or a Paladin ?/Sorcerer ? might be
better looking at things though. (Why the Armor? I hate the Mage Armor
& further defensive spells spell tax I've had to pay with my last 2
spell-casters, seems like I was using half or more of my spells
defensively just to stay in the fight, and even with that led to the
death of my Wiz 3.)

I'm torn on the others. I'm thinking Half-Orc Barbarian - Bear Totemist
for a tank, but I've sort of seen one of those, though it was
Barbarian/Druid and Variant Human I think, and just seemed so-so. Also
I think Barbarian might need a healing focused cleric to back it up. A
Variant Human Fighter or Paladin great pole-arm master looks pretty
appealing too.

Last is the skill monkey, I've seen Rogues be really effective, but
I've kind of got a hankering to try a Bard or Monk. The only problem
with that is the only Bard I've seen was pretty ineffectual, and the
Monk doesn't seem to be a skill monkey, I'm not really sure what it's
supposed to be for that matter.

I'm also thinking of changing the Cleric to Death domain (necromancer),
making an Oathbreaker Paladin (necromancer), and going with a Lore Bard
(with necromancy) to make an all necromancy party instead, but that
would put all my eggs in one basket, which while probably would be
powerful after 5th level, might be seriously disadvantaged against some
opponents.

- Justisaur
Justisaur
2017-05-12 22:07:20 UTC
Permalink
Post by Justisaur
I'm thinking of trying to solo with 5e again now that I've got a bit
more experience with it. I'm trying to decide what characters I want to
fill out a 4 character party (or maybe I should go 5 as I've read it
gets pretty rough with 4 or less, much as my last attempt found.)
I've made a Hill Dwarf Tempest Cleric - I wanted to try a non-healing
focused cleric as that's mostly what I've seen (I did see a Knowledge
domain one which was awesome, but mostly due to amazing luck - she
landed a crit in her first encounter, and almost every single time she
commanded enemy leaders to 'surrender' they failed their save and caused
their subordinates morale to fall apart.)
My 2nd is a Mountain Dwarf Wizard will be Necromancer, I've read people
say the Mountain Dwarf Wizard is good, so wanted to see it in action, I
think a Cleric 1 or 2/Wizard 18 or 19 (heavy armor, some 1st level
healing spells which can be boosted), or a Paladin ?/Sorcerer ? might be
better looking at things though. (Why the Armor? I hate the Mage Armor
& further defensive spells spell tax I've had to pay with my last 2
spell-casters, seems like I was using half or more of my spells
defensively just to stay in the fight, and even with that led to the
death of my Wiz 3.)
I'm torn on the others. I'm thinking Half-Orc Barbarian - Bear Totemist
for a tank, but I've sort of seen one of those, though it was
Barbarian/Druid and Variant Human I think, and just seemed so-so. Also
I think Barbarian might need a healing focused cleric to back it up. A
Variant Human Fighter or Paladin great pole-arm master looks pretty
appealing too.
Last is the skill monkey, I've seen Rogues be really effective, but
I've kind of got a hankering to try a Bard or Monk. The only problem
with that is the only Bard I've seen was pretty ineffectual, and the
Monk doesn't seem to be a skill monkey, I'm not really sure what it's
supposed to be for that matter.
I'm also thinking of changing the Cleric to Death domain (necromancer),
making an Oathbreaker Paladin (necromancer), and going with a Lore Bard
(with necromancy) to make an all necromancy party instead, but that
would put all my eggs in one basket, which while probably would be
powerful after 5th level, might be seriously disadvantaged against some
opponents.
I settled on Half-Orc Barbarian (eventually bear totemist) for one, and
and Half-Elf Bard to round out the party of 4. While I'd normally be
all over Minor Image (not that I ever got much use out of it in my time
as a player, or seen it used well by my players) I decided to avoid it
as too hard to adjudicate for solo play.

I'm looking at modules - DM's Guild (aka rpgnow etc.) has a surprising
number free or pay what you want for 5e, with more for rather small
numbers like $2. I was hoping to find some indy one to try, but those
I've looked at so far seem a bit too rp involved with little to no
combat which wouldn't work well for solo. I see the first bit for
levels 1-5 of WotC's Storm King's Thunder is there free, so I might try
that if I don't find anything else that looks better.

I wasn't really happy with any of their 3e-4e modules (no I never played
Sunless Citadel, and Keep on the Shadowfell wasn't bad, and the Dungeon
Delves were good for what they were - short hack & slash) so wanted to
avoid WotC ones.

- Justisaur

Loading...