I encouraged this by 3d printing a pirate vessel with cannons
and am further encouraging it by having bought a bigger 3d printer and printing another ship, this time with 3 decks and little gun ports and whatnot and oh my god painting this all will take a while
its been printing parts for days and im about 2/3 done
it was $170 for the printer and going to cost about $8 in material for the boat (Minis are about 5-10 cents), however putting the printer together, configuring it, realizing it was put together wrong, fixing it, crying, calibrating, taking it back apart, fixing it, 3d printing parts for your 3d printer so it 3d prints better, crying some more, and calibrating again - yes that takes time
I have a Monoprice Mini Delta and I like it quite a bit. The build area is quite small, and from what I understand the quality can vary wildly from printer to printer, but I seem to have gotten one of the good ones. I've been getting pretty good quality prints on it basically right out of the box.
my old one is a mini delta, which is also quite good, but printing out just the deck of a boat was a nightmare so I went up in size - it's very low maintenance compared to the ender 3, it mostly *just works*
The Ender 3 is what I was looking at for the exact same reason. The larger build volume means easier terrain prints. I too have heard that with the right tweaks and some patience you can get it dialed in for some really decent mini prints. One of these days when I have the room I'll probably have one of each.
If the filthy animals I have for players would appreciate and reciprocate even half of the effort and expense you guys put in, I'd be very interested in trying it out.
But alas, they are filthy animals.
+9
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Crossposting from SE++....
One of the dudes I play with just linked some initiative trackers from Drivethrough RPG. I couldn't resist and they seem cool and there are a bunch of different versions.
found a werewolf in curse of strahd in the dungeon, he offered to help us, I cast remove curse on him
DM is mad because she says I messed up our chosen ally from madam eva.... my character is LG and werewolves are universally evil (we were told this by the keepers of the feather)
I... why did you pick an evil ally for a good party
edit: im also a wereraven and was told that their kind is hunted by the werewolves of barovia
found a werewolf in curse of strahd in the dungeon, he offered to help us, I cast remove curse on him
DM is mad because she says I messed up our chosen ally from madam eva.... my character is LG and werewolves are universally evil (we were told this by the keepers of the feather)
I... why did you pick an evil ally for a good party
edit: im also a wereraven and was told that their kind is hunted by the werewolves of barovia
I didn't realize a regular remove curse removes Lycanthropy.
Also your DM needs to find a way to yes and.
And who you get as an ally is random based on a card draw. Did you guys not participate in the card draw? There is like a dozen characters that can end up as your ally, and most of them went give you the time of day except if you get them via card.
She deliberately picked the cards, which I agree with, because leaving it to chance can just give your characters a shit campaign with no ally and all the magic items are found in the first 4 sessions
But she has a huge thing about werewolves and picked that for us despite having two party members who will not work with an evil character
There is plenty more magic items than the ones from the reading. And my group has 2/3 in the castle Ravenloft (and not like the ground floor either, and they haven't gotten them yet despite being to the castle 3 times so far). And based on their chosen classes and alignments, they can't even attune to one of them.
found a werewolf in curse of strahd in the dungeon, he offered to help us, I cast remove curse on him
DM is mad because she says I messed up our chosen ally from madam eva.... my character is LG and werewolves are universally evil (we were told this by the keepers of the feather)
I... why did you pick an evil ally for a good party
edit: im also a wereraven and was told that their kind is hunted by the werewolves of barovia
I didn't realize a regular remove curse removes Lycanthropy.
Used to be Remove Curse then Remove Disease.
Nowadays contracted Lycanthropy is Remove Curse, born Lycanthropy is Wish.
Either way, Curing their Lycanthropy doesn't make them not evil and guy can just go get reinfected.
There is plenty more magic items than the ones from the reading. And my group has 2/3 in the castle Ravenloft (and not like the ground floor either, and they haven't gotten them yet despite being to the castle 3 times so far). And based on their chosen classes and alignments, they can't even attune to one of them.
The sun sword and holy symbol of ravenkind are kind of iconic to the campaign and having them both be found right off the bat, or having the party have no ally, just feels off, which is why she pre-chose the cards, it's not a singleplayer video game where we're going to get to play it a bunch of times to see all the stuff
It just sucks that her personal werewolf fetish is creeping in and now all the sudden npcs are telling us the werewolfs aren't so bad (at the end of the session)... really, forcing children to fight to the death and turning the strong ones, yea...
I've been invited to a 5E game at some point in the nearish future with a group of RL friends. I'm planning on discussing character options with the group, but I was hoping to get some pointers from people more experienced with the system as to what classes/builds work well and what to shy away from. I have a bit of 1st/2nd edition experience, a smattering of Pathfinder experience and no 5E experience. I am hoping to be able to play a well rounded character that is able to participate in most parts of the game. I'm looking for a class/build that gets some narrative powers. This is important to me, because it the 2 Pathfinder shorts I played I first created a fighter who basically couldn't do anything useful when it wasn't combat and got weaker as I leveled up, and then in the second game created a druid who could participate in pretty much all aspects of the game. I'd like something that doesn't rely on free-form roleplaying or GM permission to do cool things out of combat.
I've been told that the group already has people who are interested in playing Druid, Berserker (Barbarian?), Wizard, Thief. The group is probably going to be 6 people, but most of them are new and the GM is pretty experienced. I'm not sure how combat-heavy things are going to be. Based on what I've been told, there's a fair bit of roleplaying.
That party looks like it'll lack a Face (someone with good Charisma and the speaking skills). Lots of good options there. Paladins have Cha secondary, they'll be similar to what you know from Pathfinder. Sorcerers are Cha primary and have lots of combat utility, but their limited spell selection means they won't have room to fit every useful spell in your arsenal, you'll have to pick and choose. Warlocks are Cha focused and very modular, so you can build them lots of different ways.
My favorite Warlock build seems like it would fit well in that group. Either Great Old One or Fey pact, pick up Mask of Many Faces and the Actor feat. You can disguise yourself at will, and you can pretend to be anyone with a bit of study. You can pick up all the standard Face skills to be the party speaker. And with Eldritch Blast as a primary attack, you do plenty of damage.
I wouldn't worry too much about builds other than the broad strokes. There's a much more restrictive cap on power level in 5e compared to Pathfinder, so the gap between "min-maxed munchkin" and "random race/class combo" isn't huge.
Yeah, I'm looking for general guidance on what classes get to participate using class abilities in most areas of the game versus the classes that largely only get combat-related abilities. I'll check out the suggestions here.
Based on my Pathfinder experience tabletop roleplaying games can be broken down into the following portions:
1. Combat
2. Travel/Movement/Overcoming obstacles
3. Investigation/finding things/people/plot points out.
4. Social Interaction/Convincing People to do things and making friends
5. Building/Creating things
I'm likely leaving out a big category of stuff and several of these things obviously have overlap. I'm looking for a character class/build that is able to participate in the combat mini-game as well as at least 2 other categories reliably, not be a complete waste of space for the other categories, and remain relevant up to around at least level 10 or so to cover the expected level range of the adventures. If the character can remain relevant in to higher levels, all the better.
I hope that helps calibrate what I am looking for. Thanks for the advice.
Yeah, I'm looking for general guidance on what classes get to participate using class abilities in most areas of the game versus the classes that largely only get combat-related abilities. I'll check out the suggestions here.
Based on my Pathfinder experience tabletop roleplaying games can be broken down into the following portions:
1. Combat
2. Travel/Movement/Overcoming obstacles
3. Investigation/finding things/people/plot points out.
4. Social Interaction/Convincing People to do things and making friends
5. Building/Creating things
I'm likely leaving out a big category of stuff and several of these things obviously have overlap. I'm looking for a character class/build that is able to participate in the combat mini-game as well as at least 2 other categories reliably, not be a complete waste of space for the other categories, and remain relevant up to around at least level 10 or so to cover the expected level range of the adventures. If the character can remain relevant in to higher levels, all the better.
I hope that helps calibrate what I am looking for. Thanks for the advice.
Bard sounds real good for what you are looking for.
As well don't be hasty with your background. They don't always come up, but some of the background abilities are pretty dope for covering aspects of 2 and 3 of your list.
I still really wanna run a game where the party are bikers that ride giant bats and get into bar fights, with no overarching plot or even a villain.
I don’t mean “like bikers” either, I mean leather jackets with their gang name on the back, one of them has a chain wrapped around their fist to punch good.
Bard indeed sounds what would fit best with that group, but some counter questions:
- On what level will you be starting? If you're starting on level 1, check out the subclasses that you'll get access to level 3, because those abilities will be really what will make your character stand out. (For Instance is your Rogue a skilled burgler, a trained assassin or a criminal mastermind? Or a trickster with a few magic spells up his/her sleeve?) And it's best to already plan your build with your subclass in mind.
- One of the big advantages of 5e is that each character will have a background, which will give you access to some skills, languages, a bit of equipment and a special ability, so that even a basic fighter still will have things to do in non-combat situations. There are a bunch of standard backgrounds that each fit to a specific class (for instance a fighter fits well with the soldier background, but there is no reason why your fighter is not a sailor or a hermit or a noble.) So think about what type of character you want to play and then fit your class and background to that. The DMs I've been with all allowed you to use a custom background (chose 2 skills, a background feature and 2 languages/tools you are trained in).
- To what books will you have access? Just the general playbook or Xanathar's guide as well? Xanathar's guide opens up a lot of interesting subclasses.
I've been invited to a 5E game at some point in the nearish future with a group of RL friends. I'm planning on discussing character options with the group, but I was hoping to get some pointers from people more experienced with the system as to what classes/builds work well and what to shy away from. I have a bit of 1st/2nd edition experience, a smattering of Pathfinder experience and no 5E experience. I am hoping to be able to play a well rounded character that is able to participate in most parts of the game. I'm looking for a class/build that gets some narrative powers. This is important to me, because it the 2 Pathfinder shorts I played I first created a fighter who basically couldn't do anything useful when it wasn't combat and got weaker as I leveled up, and then in the second game created a druid who could participate in pretty much all aspects of the game. I'd like something that doesn't rely on free-form roleplaying or GM permission to do cool things out of combat.
I've been told that the group already has people who are interested in playing Druid, Berserker (Barbarian?), Wizard, Thief. The group is probably going to be 6 people, but most of them are new and the GM is pretty experienced. I'm not sure how combat-heavy things are going to be. Based on what I've been told, there's a fair bit of roleplaying.
Generally speaking, Most characters are fairly flexible in terms of "use" due to the background system ensuring that players have access to generic proficiencies as well as specific background perks (I.E. My character is a criminal, I can get information from the local thieves guild or I get food for myself and others in the forest because I'm an outlander).
Still though, If I were looking for something flexible with the party comp that you've outlined, I'd want to go for monk, Fighter, bard, druid or cleric.
Monk is super flexible, owing to the eclectic mix of abilities that it has central to the class while also having neat specializations opening up at level 3 (Punch man, Ninja, and the Avatar). Also it's not really a "gear" class so that frees up your spending for interesting gew gaws from the equipment list.
Fighter is arguably the most versatile class in the game in terms of what it can be; Basically any martial archetype you can imagine from history (ie: polish winged lancers, samurai, Aztec jaguar warriors, samurai, Rajput ect.) can be created using this and by and large you will be straight up better at being "weapon guy" then anyone else in the game. Further, your three archetypes will each reward a different playstyle; Champion's abilities are entirely passive so you don't have to worry about timing any abilities, Battle master allows you to do "super moves" and Eldritch knight gives you some magic to play around with for extra oomph.
Bard is and will always be a jack of all trades, and 5th nailed that; You get a huge selection of prificiencies to choose from, a solid go to ability in bardic inspiration (letting you buff other players rolls) and a good buff style magic list. Further, your default specializations reward either cleverness (college of lore) or melee (valor) depending on how you want to play the class.
Druid is super versatile as well, though you wouldn't know it for how everyone focuses on the moon circle (which to be fair, allows you to turn into animals and just HP tank all day long), but druids of the land aren't exactly wimps either; they get a good mix of offensive and defensive spells and can even be formidable front line fighters if you take the right spell options.
Clerics are also pretty stronk; while they're traditionally pigeon holed as healers in most games, the different domains can change that up a *lot*; domains like Light, storm and war are all utterly devestating on the battlefield when they roll offensively while trickery, nature and knowledge can all bring a lot of tech to the party's wheelhouse.
That having been said: generally speaking as long as you have a general idea of what kind of campaign the GM intends to run and aren't trying to be an iconoclast, you should generally be able to get by just fine.
The thing with Fighter and Monk is I can't see from their class outline where they get non-kill things/combat abilities.
That said, I'm leaning towards Bard (thanks for the suggestion Sleep), Cleric (not as a heal-bot), and Ranger. I'm also going to look more into Warlock as that was completely off the radar until Terrendos' post. I'll also look more closely at backgrounds as it seems like part of character progression is tied up with them.
One more question, is crafting for versatility something that is practical in 5e, or is it generally not something you can rely on? In Pathfinder, being able to craft wands and scrolls every day while adventuring added a huge amount of versatility to a number of classes and if I can do something similar in 5e I don't want to ignore it as it can potentially open up a number of classes that appear to be geared more for the combat side of things.
To DizzyD: I'm not sure yet, which is why I was trying to get a general feel for things. I don't know if all the other players have confirmed their availability or if they are going to want to play something different so I am trying to not nail myself down yet. Also, as far as the campaign I'm not sure if this is going to be a one-off or a longer term campaign. For books we have access to, again I'm not certain. The group seems to be using a lot of phone apps for reference, so it might just be the main books plus online SRDs. Again, this is going to have to be cleared with the GM.
The thing with Fighter and Monk is I can't see from their class outline where they get non-kill things/combat abilities.
That said, I'm leaning towards Bard (thanks for the suggestion Sleep), Cleric (not as a heal-bot), and Ranger. I'm also going to look more into Warlock as that was completely off the radar until Terrendos' post. I'll also look more closely at backgrounds as it seems like part of character progression is tied up with them.
One more question, is crafting for versatility something that is practical in 5e, or is it generally not something you can rely on? In Pathfinder, being able to craft wands and scrolls every day while adventuring added a huge amount of versatility to a number of classes and if I can do something similar in 5e I don't want to ignore it as it can potentially open up a number of classes that appear to be geared more for the combat side of things.
To DizzyD: I'm not sure yet, which is why I was trying to get a general feel for things. I don't know if all the other players have confirmed their availability or if they are going to want to play something different so I am trying to not nail myself down yet. Also, as far as the campaign I'm not sure if this is going to be a one-off or a longer term campaign. For books we have access to, again I'm not certain. The group seems to be using a lot of phone apps for reference, so it might just be the main books plus online SRDs. Again, this is going to have to be cleared with the GM.
Entirely DM dependent, but generally creating magic items takes more time than as something you could do mid adventure. Something like that is more for between adventures.
An important change with Pathfinder/3e is that you won't get skillpoints each level. Your skills bonuses are based on your STAT modifier + your proficiency modifier (if you are proficient in a skill). Your proficiency modifier will slowly increase over levels and your stats may increase a little, but your bonuses will usually be limited even for the skills you are proficient at.
Fighter will get proficiency in two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival. Add in a background and you'll have 4 skills which you get a bonus on. You won't be the skill monkey the Rogue or Bard will be (who get 4 skills from their class + 2 from background and will get expertise, allowing them do double their proficiency bonuses), but you won't be useless outside combat.
For instance a Fighter with the Soldier background (basically the most boring, vanilla option), can have proficiency in Athletics, Intimidation, History and Insight. So sgt. Walker fought during the wars, but in his downtime he studied history and insight so he understood his enemies and his men, becoming a confident for his band of brothers while also using his knowledge of history to allow them to infiltrate ruins through what were once the old sewers.
Re: crafting: We don't ever really used crafting in our campaign. The rules in the base handbook are sparse for it (half a page at best in the book. It requires proficiency with a tool and it allows you to craft non-magical objects. RAW you can craft 5gp worth of items on a day). Basically talk to your DM what his ideas are, because none of my DMs used the crafting rules in the book.
The thing with Fighter and Monk is I can't see from their class outline where they get non-kill things/combat abilities.
That said, I'm leaning towards Bard (thanks for the suggestion Sleep), Cleric (not as a heal-bot), and Ranger. I'm also going to look more into Warlock as that was completely off the radar until Terrendos' post. I'll also look more closely at backgrounds as it seems like part of character progression is tied up with them.
One more question, is crafting for versatility something that is practical in 5e, or is it generally not something you can rely on? In Pathfinder, being able to craft wands and scrolls every day while adventuring added a huge amount of versatility to a number of classes and if I can do something similar in 5e I don't want to ignore it as it can potentially open up a number of classes that appear to be geared more for the combat side of things.
To DizzyD: I'm not sure yet, which is why I was trying to get a general feel for things. I don't know if all the other players have confirmed their availability or if they are going to want to play something different so I am trying to not nail myself down yet. Also, as far as the campaign I'm not sure if this is going to be a one-off or a longer term campaign. For books we have access to, again I'm not certain. The group seems to be using a lot of phone apps for reference, so it might just be the main books plus online SRDs. Again, this is going to have to be cleared with the GM.
Monk has tons of stuff tying into movement which can be really helpful in any situation where you need to do something quickly and both the way of stealth and way of the elements provide interesting non combat applications. Further, your primary stats are usually dexterity and wisdom, so you gain a lot of value as a scout/infiltrator (particularly since you don't need a weapon or armor and can just pass for a harmless peon).
Fighter gets action surge at level two which (while certainly used for bonking stuff more often then not) allows you to do an extra standard action; that can easily be an extra skill check for anything you're trying do do. Also, your specializations in champion gives you an edge on certain physical checks while battlemaster lets you get an artisan proficiency. Beyond that, Fighter gets more character advancements then any other class; not counting houserules or the human variant, you would have 7 which can be used to either buff stats (which gives you 2 +1s to any attributes you want) or gain feats (which might also allow you to have better attributes in addition to cool abilities).
So we started talking about the sidekicks UA in the SE++ thread, but i figured i's being iit back up here because they are a bit of a hoot.
They are pretty lightweight straightforward advancement for NPCs but they can make some crazy stuff happen.
The craziest thing I've found so far is taking a CR 1 or less creature that has spellcasting already and giving it levels as a warrior or an expert.
Taking something like the acolyte and giving them some warrior levels to have a bit of a paladin on your team.
The various low level NPCs from the guild masters guide to ravnica are particularly hilarious. You could take a front line medic and give them expert levels so they can run around combat healing everyone and stabilizing characters that are making death saves (and filling in an almost absurd load of skill utility if necessary).
Or going warrior on the grung wildling that already has 3rd level spells.
The other interesting use is giving the warrior class to animals or other creatures that have weird attack riders, a Pteranodon with extra attacks flying by all the enemies fishing for crits on a 2d4 attack, or a giant poisonous snake that just hands out multiple poison attacks in a round. Frankly i might look at messing with ranger because this almost seems a better way to advance animal companions for beast master.
These are definitely some moderately radioactive rules right here, you can definitely make some busted shit real quick if you're not careful, but I'll still give em a go for a few NPCs in the future. I have a samurai in one of my parties and I'll likely use the expert class to give levels to the artist he works for.
I turned my player's copper dragon wyrmling contact into a Spellcaster (healer bard) sidekick and it has worked beautifully. He has enough spells that they don't have to spend their paladin's or ranger's spell slots on party survival and can use them for fun stuff like Hunter's Mark or Smiting. The rules are light enough that I feel like any guests or the players themselves can easily pick up the sidekick and run him but at the same time, it has enough fun choices that the party has been able to really engage with Ceciliax as a member of their group.
Posts
Whatever potential ship players would have would definitely be a mobile base rather than a car.
spelljaaaaaaaaaamer
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
man they're going to be upset when UNSPECIFIED FUTURE EVENT happens and fucking wrecks all they have built
also guys two of you are literally falling apart from the death curse... might want to... yeah
Characters can be rerolled, but a Grand Pirate Armada (with a suitable Dread Pirate Roberts situation going on) can last forever.
You can also go along with it and read The Living Ships for inspiration. I mean, there's options.
and am further encouraging it by having bought a bigger 3d printer and printing another ship, this time with 3 decks and little gun ports and whatnot and oh my god painting this all will take a while
its been printing parts for days and im about 2/3 done
I don't have the time, money or inclination to go to that extent for models.... but I fully support those who do!
that was what the holiday was for!
That's so awesome
https://www.amazon.com/Creality-Printer-Aluminum-Resume-220x220x250mm/dp/B07LFDXK5M/ref=asc_df_B07LFDXK5M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241996989026&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3032015919916331321&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052424&hvtargid=pla-628220767364&psc=1
It's cheap and there's a large community, and videos about how to get good minis out of it
it took me about 8 hours of fucking with it to get it printing how I like though
But alas, they are filthy animals.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
DM is mad because she says I messed up our chosen ally from madam eva.... my character is LG and werewolves are universally evil (we were told this by the keepers of the feather)
I... why did you pick an evil ally for a good party
edit: im also a wereraven and was told that their kind is hunted by the werewolves of barovia
I didn't realize a regular remove curse removes Lycanthropy.
Also your DM needs to find a way to yes and.
And who you get as an ally is random based on a card draw. Did you guys not participate in the card draw? There is like a dozen characters that can end up as your ally, and most of them went give you the time of day except if you get them via card.
But she has a huge thing about werewolves and picked that for us despite having two party members who will not work with an evil character
Used to be Remove Curse then Remove Disease.
Nowadays contracted Lycanthropy is Remove Curse, born Lycanthropy is Wish.
Either way, Curing their Lycanthropy doesn't make them not evil and guy can just go get reinfected.
The sun sword and holy symbol of ravenkind are kind of iconic to the campaign and having them both be found right off the bat, or having the party have no ally, just feels off, which is why she pre-chose the cards, it's not a singleplayer video game where we're going to get to play it a bunch of times to see all the stuff
It just sucks that her personal werewolf fetish is creeping in and now all the sudden npcs are telling us the werewolfs aren't so bad (at the end of the session)... really, forcing children to fight to the death and turning the strong ones, yea...
we're going to talk to her about it
Did anyone order a ninja turtle themed character option? I made this a while ago but I’ve improved it a far bit over the past hour.
I've been told that the group already has people who are interested in playing Druid, Berserker (Barbarian?), Wizard, Thief. The group is probably going to be 6 people, but most of them are new and the GM is pretty experienced. I'm not sure how combat-heavy things are going to be. Based on what I've been told, there's a fair bit of roleplaying.
My favorite Warlock build seems like it would fit well in that group. Either Great Old One or Fey pact, pick up Mask of Many Faces and the Actor feat. You can disguise yourself at will, and you can pretend to be anyone with a bit of study. You can pick up all the standard Face skills to be the party speaker. And with Eldritch Blast as a primary attack, you do plenty of damage.
I wouldn't worry too much about builds other than the broad strokes. There's a much more restrictive cap on power level in 5e compared to Pathfinder, so the gap between "min-maxed munchkin" and "random race/class combo" isn't huge.
Based on my Pathfinder experience tabletop roleplaying games can be broken down into the following portions:
1. Combat
2. Travel/Movement/Overcoming obstacles
3. Investigation/finding things/people/plot points out.
4. Social Interaction/Convincing People to do things and making friends
5. Building/Creating things
I'm likely leaving out a big category of stuff and several of these things obviously have overlap. I'm looking for a character class/build that is able to participate in the combat mini-game as well as at least 2 other categories reliably, not be a complete waste of space for the other categories, and remain relevant up to around at least level 10 or so to cover the expected level range of the adventures. If the character can remain relevant in to higher levels, all the better.
I hope that helps calibrate what I am looking for. Thanks for the advice.
Bard sounds real good for what you are looking for.
As well don't be hasty with your background. They don't always come up, but some of the background abilities are pretty dope for covering aspects of 2 and 3 of your list.
I still really wanna run a game where the party are bikers that ride giant bats and get into bar fights, with no overarching plot or even a villain.
I don’t mean “like bikers” either, I mean leather jackets with their gang name on the back, one of them has a chain wrapped around their fist to punch good.
- On what level will you be starting? If you're starting on level 1, check out the subclasses that you'll get access to level 3, because those abilities will be really what will make your character stand out. (For Instance is your Rogue a skilled burgler, a trained assassin or a criminal mastermind? Or a trickster with a few magic spells up his/her sleeve?) And it's best to already plan your build with your subclass in mind.
- One of the big advantages of 5e is that each character will have a background, which will give you access to some skills, languages, a bit of equipment and a special ability, so that even a basic fighter still will have things to do in non-combat situations. There are a bunch of standard backgrounds that each fit to a specific class (for instance a fighter fits well with the soldier background, but there is no reason why your fighter is not a sailor or a hermit or a noble.) So think about what type of character you want to play and then fit your class and background to that. The DMs I've been with all allowed you to use a custom background (chose 2 skills, a background feature and 2 languages/tools you are trained in).
- To what books will you have access? Just the general playbook or Xanathar's guide as well? Xanathar's guide opens up a lot of interesting subclasses.
Generally speaking, Most characters are fairly flexible in terms of "use" due to the background system ensuring that players have access to generic proficiencies as well as specific background perks (I.E. My character is a criminal, I can get information from the local thieves guild or I get food for myself and others in the forest because I'm an outlander).
Still though, If I were looking for something flexible with the party comp that you've outlined, I'd want to go for monk, Fighter, bard, druid or cleric.
Monk is super flexible, owing to the eclectic mix of abilities that it has central to the class while also having neat specializations opening up at level 3 (Punch man, Ninja, and the Avatar). Also it's not really a "gear" class so that frees up your spending for interesting gew gaws from the equipment list.
Fighter is arguably the most versatile class in the game in terms of what it can be; Basically any martial archetype you can imagine from history (ie: polish winged lancers, samurai, Aztec jaguar warriors, samurai, Rajput ect.) can be created using this and by and large you will be straight up better at being "weapon guy" then anyone else in the game. Further, your three archetypes will each reward a different playstyle; Champion's abilities are entirely passive so you don't have to worry about timing any abilities, Battle master allows you to do "super moves" and Eldritch knight gives you some magic to play around with for extra oomph.
Bard is and will always be a jack of all trades, and 5th nailed that; You get a huge selection of prificiencies to choose from, a solid go to ability in bardic inspiration (letting you buff other players rolls) and a good buff style magic list. Further, your default specializations reward either cleverness (college of lore) or melee (valor) depending on how you want to play the class.
Druid is super versatile as well, though you wouldn't know it for how everyone focuses on the moon circle (which to be fair, allows you to turn into animals and just HP tank all day long), but druids of the land aren't exactly wimps either; they get a good mix of offensive and defensive spells and can even be formidable front line fighters if you take the right spell options.
Clerics are also pretty stronk; while they're traditionally pigeon holed as healers in most games, the different domains can change that up a *lot*; domains like Light, storm and war are all utterly devestating on the battlefield when they roll offensively while trickery, nature and knowledge can all bring a lot of tech to the party's wheelhouse.
That having been said: generally speaking as long as you have a general idea of what kind of campaign the GM intends to run and aren't trying to be an iconoclast, you should generally be able to get by just fine.
That said, I'm leaning towards Bard (thanks for the suggestion Sleep), Cleric (not as a heal-bot), and Ranger. I'm also going to look more into Warlock as that was completely off the radar until Terrendos' post. I'll also look more closely at backgrounds as it seems like part of character progression is tied up with them.
One more question, is crafting for versatility something that is practical in 5e, or is it generally not something you can rely on? In Pathfinder, being able to craft wands and scrolls every day while adventuring added a huge amount of versatility to a number of classes and if I can do something similar in 5e I don't want to ignore it as it can potentially open up a number of classes that appear to be geared more for the combat side of things.
To DizzyD: I'm not sure yet, which is why I was trying to get a general feel for things. I don't know if all the other players have confirmed their availability or if they are going to want to play something different so I am trying to not nail myself down yet. Also, as far as the campaign I'm not sure if this is going to be a one-off or a longer term campaign. For books we have access to, again I'm not certain. The group seems to be using a lot of phone apps for reference, so it might just be the main books plus online SRDs. Again, this is going to have to be cleared with the GM.
Entirely DM dependent, but generally creating magic items takes more time than as something you could do mid adventure. Something like that is more for between adventures.
Fighter will get proficiency in two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival. Add in a background and you'll have 4 skills which you get a bonus on. You won't be the skill monkey the Rogue or Bard will be (who get 4 skills from their class + 2 from background and will get expertise, allowing them do double their proficiency bonuses), but you won't be useless outside combat.
For instance a Fighter with the Soldier background (basically the most boring, vanilla option), can have proficiency in Athletics, Intimidation, History and Insight. So sgt. Walker fought during the wars, but in his downtime he studied history and insight so he understood his enemies and his men, becoming a confident for his band of brothers while also using his knowledge of history to allow them to infiltrate ruins through what were once the old sewers.
Re: crafting: We don't ever really used crafting in our campaign. The rules in the base handbook are sparse for it (half a page at best in the book. It requires proficiency with a tool and it allows you to craft non-magical objects. RAW you can craft 5gp worth of items on a day). Basically talk to your DM what his ideas are, because none of my DMs used the crafting rules in the book.
Monk has tons of stuff tying into movement which can be really helpful in any situation where you need to do something quickly and both the way of stealth and way of the elements provide interesting non combat applications. Further, your primary stats are usually dexterity and wisdom, so you gain a lot of value as a scout/infiltrator (particularly since you don't need a weapon or armor and can just pass for a harmless peon).
Fighter gets action surge at level two which (while certainly used for bonking stuff more often then not) allows you to do an extra standard action; that can easily be an extra skill check for anything you're trying do do. Also, your specializations in champion gives you an edge on certain physical checks while battlemaster lets you get an artisan proficiency. Beyond that, Fighter gets more character advancements then any other class; not counting houserules or the human variant, you would have 7 which can be used to either buff stats (which gives you 2 +1s to any attributes you want) or gain feats (which might also allow you to have better attributes in addition to cool abilities).
They are pretty lightweight straightforward advancement for NPCs but they can make some crazy stuff happen.
The craziest thing I've found so far is taking a CR 1 or less creature that has spellcasting already and giving it levels as a warrior or an expert.
Taking something like the acolyte and giving them some warrior levels to have a bit of a paladin on your team.
The various low level NPCs from the guild masters guide to ravnica are particularly hilarious. You could take a front line medic and give them expert levels so they can run around combat healing everyone and stabilizing characters that are making death saves (and filling in an almost absurd load of skill utility if necessary).
Or going warrior on the grung wildling that already has 3rd level spells.
The other interesting use is giving the warrior class to animals or other creatures that have weird attack riders, a Pteranodon with extra attacks flying by all the enemies fishing for crits on a 2d4 attack, or a giant poisonous snake that just hands out multiple poison attacks in a round. Frankly i might look at messing with ranger because this almost seems a better way to advance animal companions for beast master.
These are definitely some moderately radioactive rules right here, you can definitely make some busted shit real quick if you're not careful, but I'll still give em a go for a few NPCs in the future. I have a samurai in one of my parties and I'll likely use the expert class to give levels to the artist he works for.