We talked about creating a party that has similar goals and
perhaps even an overarching theme such as all arcane characters in part one.
Now we’re going to talk about making mechanical choices that will create a
synergistic party. Once you have agreed on a party theme, or at least gotten
some ideas how the characters could be connected, the next step is actually
creating a party. When creating a party you want to look at how all the pieces
fit together, instead of simply making individual characters on their own.
Remember the goal here is to make a party that runs like a well oiled machine.
Occasionally a party will work well together from happenstance. Additionally,
if the characters and players all have similar goals a party can run smoothly
as well. However, a party built together with a theme, with short term and long
term goals, and with an eye towards working as a unit, can run sensationally
well.
The first step to making a mechanically optimized party is
to pick a theme. Your theme should include some basic story ideas, how the
characters will interact and what the party will be good at. No one character
can be good at everything and the same is true of adventuring parties. While
you can certainly have a party that does a bit of everything, having a more
focused party is going to shine brighter. You certainly want to cover your
bases in party creation to make sure you don’t have any glaring holes. For
example a party that is functionally blind or socially illiterate. The main
thing is to come up with some sort of concept for your party such as our party
always wants to go first, or our party never wants to miss. Of course you will
never be able to fully reach those goals, but if you have them you can make informed
choices to come close to reaching them.
There is some inherent synergy in choosing classes that
share a power source. For example, arcane characters tend to have some great
controller options across the board, divine characters tend to have a touch of
leader in them, most martial characters have good basic attacks and warlords
can give out basic attacks like candy. This is nice because the game rewards
you for making a party with a theme. I’ve never been in a party of all arcane
characters, but I imagine it would be fun frustrating all the monsters into
oblivion.
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| Yeah it's kinda like that |
Playing a group of characters that share a race has less
inherent synergy. Still there are some options that can be synergistic, and
even more options that can work well together on a basic level. A team of all
Devas could work well, especially for a group of divine characters. The bonuses
like up, and Devas make excellent Divine characters thematically. You will get
a lot of mileage out of Memory of 1,000 lifetimes and the Deva’s resistances
are a nice bonus. Some feats are particularly useful for a group of Devas.
These include Radiant Power, Battle Intuition and Auspicious Lineage in the
heroic tier. Shared Memories is an excellent feat, but is for Warlords only.
One interesting tactic could be an entire party of multiclass Warlords. The
multiclass Warlord feats out of Martial Power 2 are all excellent choices for
this. The party would get a ton of benefits when anyone used an action point
and the party’s memory power would become a poll available for all to use
whenever needed.
If you never want to miss a party of all elves could be
interesting. Elven bonuses would work well for a primal themed adventuring
party if you wanted to go the hippy tree hugger route. There are plenty of good
feats for Elven characters, but nothing terribly game changing. One interesting
idea is to make a party which includes at least one Elf, at least one Eladrin,
and at least one Drow to make use of
Caelynnvala'sBoons.
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| No Beast will escape my tiny pixie wrath |
Almost any race could work to build a themed adventuring
party around. Some races have more support than others, but as long as the
party tries to work together your party of pixie beast slayers should do quite
well. The character optimization
race guide wiki is an excellent resource if
you are looking to make an optimized party of all one race. Another excellent place to look is this
post on
Dungeon's Master.
Here are some other thoughts you should keep in mind when
building an optimized party. Your leader
is a resource for more than just healing. Healing is an important aspect of
any leader, but there is more to being a good leader than healing. There is an
excellent guide to leaders here. The guide lists several aspects of being a
good leader, and all of the leader classes excel at some aspects but not
others. Keeping the other classes needs in mind while building your leader is a
key to successful party optimization. Several classes, most notably the
Blackguard, gain bonuses from having temporary hit points. Having a leader that
gives out temps is great for those classes. A class like a barbarian that likes
wielding big damage, low accuracy weapons would love a leader that helps with
accuracy such as a tactical warlord. On
the other side very accurate characters like Avengers and Rangers would love a
damage boosting leader like a Panther Shaman. The Panther Shaman works
especially well with a Ranger because the damage roll bonus would apply to both
Twin Strikes ramping up the damage even more.
Healing surges are a
party resource. You are only as resilient as your weakest link. If you want
to keep going after others have fallen you should start to think of healing
surges as a party resource. There are a couple of really good ways to extend
the party’s day by passing around surges. The Paladin can give out some healing
by using Lay on Hands. Clerics, Shamans and Artificers have some good options
for surgeless healing. Artificers in particular are good at this because their
encounter heals can be replenished by any party member’s surges. If none of
those options work well in your group you should make sure that someone has
access to the Comrade’s Succor Ritual. It is a first level ritual and well
worth the price.
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| Then the Jaguar ate his face! True story. |
Guild and Tribal
feats are your friend. If you can get the whole party on board the guild
and tribal feats are well worth the investment. The feats all give a solid
benefit for taking them, and the benefits are improved for each other party member
that takes them. If you have a good theme in mind the feats can help solidify
it.
I hope you find some of these ideas helpful when you are
building your next party. Even if you don’t want to make a totally optimized
party, thinking about a theme for your party and making some choices together
can lead to a richer gaming experience. In the future I would like to post a
complete party that uses these ideas including some basic backgrounds and
connections between the characters. If you have made a party cooperatively or
just have some ideas for how it might work, please leave a comment below. Until
next time remember don’t let your DM tell you no. It’s always, “Yes, and…?”
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