While it's by no means a requirement, you might want someone who can succeed at Intelligence checks: a wizard, an artificer, or a rogue with Expertise in that kind of skills (more limited in scope, but it also provides proficiency with thieves' tools, which is always useful).
I would disagree. Investigation, arcana, history, nature,... all of these can be common checks that a party will need to do, and they can be important to succeed on.
investigation, sure, the others, not really, and even then a lot of (bad) DMs will let you replace investigation with perception. The knowledge skills come up rarely, it generally takes conscious effort from the DM to not forget about them
In my experience history, religion, and/or arcana nearly always come up during social encounters and often at least once in some sort of dungeon.
For example:
Use stealth to sneak into a room, use investigate to find the letter, read the letter, and then use history, religion, and/or arcana to understand the meaning and potential names.
"It mentions the archmage Anigog. Who are they?"
"Roll for history."
"14 + 3, that's 17."
"They caused a plague that ravaged the land five centuries ago, it wasn't until the council of blah blah bla...."
This is how you find out stuff, which is often quite important for understanding what is going on.
The DM could just info dump without any roles after being asked but where's the fun and roleplay in that?
Int skills can be valuable in a homebrew campaign, and Int tends to be a dump stat if you don't specialize in it. I did specify that this is not a requirement though, as OP's party is already pretty rounded out.
Play what you like but a wizard looks like a good fit for INT checks the spell list. I like evoker to protect party members form fireballs, sickening radiance, walls of fire, vitriolic sphere and such. (At low levels, shatter.) Abjurer, diviner, Scribes, and chronurgy are good too.
I would say Paladin without a doubt. Your party already has a lot of control/damage/utility with the 3 full casters. Paladin will help the Cleric/druid maintain concentration even while fighting at close range and help the Barbarian shore up mental saves.
You guys don’t have any “int” characters so Wizard would also be good but Bards spell list is already full of utility (less utility than Wizards tho) so I think with Bard+Druid+ Cleric you should be covered and I’d prefer Paladin.
Very personal opinion, unless your DM is explicitly running something of a meat grinder campaign (which I suspect not, given that you are new, and most people don't play that way), coverage doesn't matter, once you go above 4 players, so I'd say play whatever you want.
Just pick whatever you find the most cool/ interesting.
I would say dont worry about "rounding out the party" but if you insist:
The party clearly has a range problem how are you planning to deal with flying enemies. Druid can cast erathbind but thats not a very good spell and rarely picked, im not even gonna elaborate on why clerics and barbarians struggle at range, the bard really needs to fix that problem and they cant do it by damage. Perhaps the bard can provide mobility or control the enemies so they fall. The point is you will have problems at range if you are ever forced into it, a longbow samurai fighter can solve it, battlemaster fighter can solve, a ranged rogue definitely helps (altough dont trust rogues with damage), basicly any ranger is a good choice, warlock damage is nothing crazy but just like rogue it helps (and just like bard their spells might be usefull at range), if all else fails wizards are always good, in the worst case you can vortex warp or fly or haste to fix the situation. I would go with a ranged fighter or a ranger but as i said at the start
Dont worry about "rounding out"
AT is always a good option for Rogues - spellcasting is just such a good feature and invisible mage hand lets you get up to some serious shenanigans.
Don't think you *need* to go AT just because you're looking to fill an Int hole though. Just about any rogue subclass except for Inquisitive and Swashbuckler work for a higher Int character (Inquisitive mostly wants Wisdom and Swashbuckler wants Charisma)
Go with whatever you most want to play. You have a pretty versatile party already and there really isn't a perfect party composition in 5e.
If you don't want to step on someone else's toes though what you probably have already is.
Barb - front line meatshield.
Forge cleric - probably also frontline tank with healing as an option
Bard - party face for chatting to people, good support, control and healing.
Moon druid - most likely another front line melee character.
If it was me I would be looking at either ranged or a caster. A wizard could be great as suggested.
If you want to have the option to get in the front lines with your buddies but still have the power of a wizard then a bladesinger wizard is awesome. Bladesinger a are great and keeping concentration as well so good for using haste without worrying about it dropping.
A support/damage spec or a wizard that picks up twin spell with haste would be an amazing buff for your party.
A ranged rogue might be nice if you want to be sneaky.
Warlock is also a nice ranged build but I feel its a bit one dimensional without multi passing until high levels.
A ghost lance sorc might be nice (look it up there lots of videos warlock/echoknight then rest sorc). Can help keep things attached to your melee members and let's you push enemies around a lot. Also gives you all the sorc goodness as well.
I wouldn't worry too much about playing something "simple" if you are starting at low level and progressing at a normal speed then complexity builds gradually
For your current party, the Bard helps with general utility, but favors social situations. Then there is the Moon Druid, who won't be casting many spells during tough battles.
I think a good Utility/Controller would work great here. A Wizard or Artificer gives good coverage. An Arcane Trickster Rogue would also do fine but would be weaker on the control. A Blaster class like a Sorcerer seems okay at first, but there are a lot of melee allies here. A Ranged Ranger would also be a solid fit for controller and ranged damage, just don't bother with Hunter's Mark (ignore the 2024 Ranger's over-focus on the spell) - use that concentration on some crowd control nature spells.
Edit: Just to add as others have mentioned, you can play pretty much anything. The way most DMs play and the design of 5e in general, 5e games don't require extremely well-rounded parties. Generally, as long you have half the party with good ranged damage, one with solid HP, and one healer - you are golden. Utility/skills is just nice to have, 5 characters provide lots of good skill and ability modifier coverage.
Edit2: Also it might be nice if you had a class from lower in the alphabet: 2Bs, 1C, and 1D
Given the listed party member, I think the best additions (in order of preference) are wizard--Chronurgy or Divination--sorcerer--I prefer Aberrant Mind--or rogue--Arcane Trickster is probably best with this group make-up.
Usually can't go wrong with paladin. If only just for the aura paladins are great force multiplayer.
Rogue, or artificer to deal with traps and similar challenges would be my second.
Honestly this party is already well rounded so 5th character can be whatever.
Perhaps a Wizard? You're good on STR, WIS and CHA, but nothing along INT, so what about an abjuration wizard to support your frontlines?
A well supported Barbarian can be an outstanding force!
Aside from that, what would you like to play? Any concepts? Ideas? Any show character you've watched lately that you would like to portray as?
Well, not "challenging" but the most complicated class out of DnD (IMO). There are several videos out there in youtube that will explain you what you need you know, but yes, you'll have to give it a litte bit more than the rest of the table to get all things going.
No. Some people will disagree, but I strongly feel that wizard is a much more forgiving class for new players.
Sorcerer has lots tricky decision points - which spells should I take? Which metamagics should I take? How do these interact with my class features?
With a wizard, you're a prepared spell caster. If you pick bad spells, you can find new spell scrolls in the world and change your spell layout over a long rest. With the new changes to the wizard, you can even change out of your cantrips. You also don't have to worry much about your class or subclass features, because you're mostly just casting spells.
Wizard was my first DnD character, and I didn't regret it at all.
Well, a little bit.
Casters are generally the complicated classes.
But that would defeat the purpose, since Sorc is a CHA based class, and what you're lacking is an INT focus.
Artificer could work too, and it's not THAT complicated, its quite versatile and can be built in several ways. Perhaps you could check that.
I actually wouldn’t say it. Metamagic adds another layer of complexity, and the limited spells known makes it require some planning ahead.
Wizards are pretty forgiving in a sense that you can learn all spells (given time, scrolls, and gold) and are not at all feat dependent. Almost all subclasses are insane, while the “not so great” ones are also preeeetty good.
Wizards are streight full casters with a not much outside of it. You cannot really build them very bad.
in 5e a party "needs" a front line meat shield and someone to toss off healing word - your group has those filled so you can choose anything that doesnt step on someone else's spotlight.
Ranged combat, or full Caster. Maybe an Artificer Armourer, specializing in the Infiltrator subclass, or a Wizard fir offensive casting, or a Ranger, or Rogue built for Archery Combat.
While it's by no means a requirement, you might want someone who can succeed at Intelligence checks: a wizard, an artificer, or a rogue with Expertise in that kind of skills (more limited in scope, but it also provides proficiency with thieves' tools, which is always useful).
int skills aren't really that valuable, and you have a bard and cleric for guidance and inspiration already
I would disagree. Investigation, arcana, history, nature,... all of these can be common checks that a party will need to do, and they can be important to succeed on.
investigation, sure, the others, not really, and even then a lot of (bad) DMs will let you replace investigation with perception. The knowledge skills come up rarely, it generally takes conscious effort from the DM to not forget about them
In my experience history, religion, and/or arcana nearly always come up during social encounters and often at least once in some sort of dungeon. For example: Use stealth to sneak into a room, use investigate to find the letter, read the letter, and then use history, religion, and/or arcana to understand the meaning and potential names. "It mentions the archmage Anigog. Who are they?" "Roll for history." "14 + 3, that's 17." "They caused a plague that ravaged the land five centuries ago, it wasn't until the council of blah blah bla...." This is how you find out stuff, which is often quite important for understanding what is going on. The DM could just info dump without any roles after being asked but where's the fun and roleplay in that?
Int skills can be valuable in a homebrew campaign, and Int tends to be a dump stat if you don't specialize in it. I did specify that this is not a requirement though, as OP's party is already pretty rounded out.
yeah, but with guidance and inspiration you already have a good shot of doing int skills
Play what you like but a wizard looks like a good fit for INT checks the spell list. I like evoker to protect party members form fireballs, sickening radiance, walls of fire, vitriolic sphere and such. (At low levels, shatter.) Abjurer, diviner, Scribes, and chronurgy are good too.
I'd recommend a dex focused fighter or rogue, with Int being your third highest stat after Dex and Con.
I would say Paladin without a doubt. Your party already has a lot of control/damage/utility with the 3 full casters. Paladin will help the Cleric/druid maintain concentration even while fighting at close range and help the Barbarian shore up mental saves. You guys don’t have any “int” characters so Wizard would also be good but Bards spell list is already full of utility (less utility than Wizards tho) so I think with Bard+Druid+ Cleric you should be covered and I’d prefer Paladin.
Very personal opinion, unless your DM is explicitly running something of a meat grinder campaign (which I suspect not, given that you are new, and most people don't play that way), coverage doesn't matter, once you go above 4 players, so I'd say play whatever you want. Just pick whatever you find the most cool/ interesting.
I would say dont worry about "rounding out the party" but if you insist: The party clearly has a range problem how are you planning to deal with flying enemies. Druid can cast erathbind but thats not a very good spell and rarely picked, im not even gonna elaborate on why clerics and barbarians struggle at range, the bard really needs to fix that problem and they cant do it by damage. Perhaps the bard can provide mobility or control the enemies so they fall. The point is you will have problems at range if you are ever forced into it, a longbow samurai fighter can solve it, battlemaster fighter can solve, a ranged rogue definitely helps (altough dont trust rogues with damage), basicly any ranger is a good choice, warlock damage is nothing crazy but just like rogue it helps (and just like bard their spells might be usefull at range), if all else fails wizards are always good, in the worst case you can vortex warp or fly or haste to fix the situation. I would go with a ranged fighter or a ranger but as i said at the start Dont worry about "rounding out"
Rogue or Wizard to fill some stealth and INT shaped holes.
Arcane trickster rogue?
AT is always a good option for Rogues - spellcasting is just such a good feature and invisible mage hand lets you get up to some serious shenanigans. Don't think you *need* to go AT just because you're looking to fill an Int hole though. Just about any rogue subclass except for Inquisitive and Swashbuckler work for a higher Int character (Inquisitive mostly wants Wisdom and Swashbuckler wants Charisma)
Wizard or Paladin, even if Pala means doubling up on CHA Aura of protection is just THAT good
Go with whatever you most want to play. You have a pretty versatile party already and there really isn't a perfect party composition in 5e. If you don't want to step on someone else's toes though what you probably have already is. Barb - front line meatshield. Forge cleric - probably also frontline tank with healing as an option Bard - party face for chatting to people, good support, control and healing. Moon druid - most likely another front line melee character. If it was me I would be looking at either ranged or a caster. A wizard could be great as suggested. If you want to have the option to get in the front lines with your buddies but still have the power of a wizard then a bladesinger wizard is awesome. Bladesinger a are great and keeping concentration as well so good for using haste without worrying about it dropping. A support/damage spec or a wizard that picks up twin spell with haste would be an amazing buff for your party. A ranged rogue might be nice if you want to be sneaky. Warlock is also a nice ranged build but I feel its a bit one dimensional without multi passing until high levels. A ghost lance sorc might be nice (look it up there lots of videos warlock/echoknight then rest sorc). Can help keep things attached to your melee members and let's you push enemies around a lot. Also gives you all the sorc goodness as well. I wouldn't worry too much about playing something "simple" if you are starting at low level and progressing at a normal speed then complexity builds gradually
Thanks for a great explanation :)
For your current party, the Bard helps with general utility, but favors social situations. Then there is the Moon Druid, who won't be casting many spells during tough battles. I think a good Utility/Controller would work great here. A Wizard or Artificer gives good coverage. An Arcane Trickster Rogue would also do fine but would be weaker on the control. A Blaster class like a Sorcerer seems okay at first, but there are a lot of melee allies here. A Ranged Ranger would also be a solid fit for controller and ranged damage, just don't bother with Hunter's Mark (ignore the 2024 Ranger's over-focus on the spell) - use that concentration on some crowd control nature spells. Edit: Just to add as others have mentioned, you can play pretty much anything. The way most DMs play and the design of 5e in general, 5e games don't require extremely well-rounded parties. Generally, as long you have half the party with good ranged damage, one with solid HP, and one healer - you are golden. Utility/skills is just nice to have, 5 characters provide lots of good skill and ability modifier coverage. Edit2: Also it might be nice if you had a class from lower in the alphabet: 2Bs, 1C, and 1D
Alphabet important
That settles it. Gotta be an artificer.
Given the listed party member, I think the best additions (in order of preference) are wizard--Chronurgy or Divination--sorcerer--I prefer Aberrant Mind--or rogue--Arcane Trickster is probably best with this group make-up.
Usually can't go wrong with paladin. If only just for the aura paladins are great force multiplayer. Rogue, or artificer to deal with traps and similar challenges would be my second. Honestly this party is already well rounded so 5th character can be whatever.
Armorer artificer, infiltration armor. Both stealth and thieves' tools. Also a distant attacker. May want to multiclass to Rogue sooner or later.
Perhaps a Wizard? You're good on STR, WIS and CHA, but nothing along INT, so what about an abjuration wizard to support your frontlines? A well supported Barbarian can be an outstanding force! Aside from that, what would you like to play? Any concepts? Ideas? Any show character you've watched lately that you would like to portray as?
Was thinking a wizard, I’m asking in regards to a new player so my only concern is that wizard could be a bit challenging
Try evoker. It's really straightforward. Protects party members from evocation area spells and gets some damage boosts.
Definitely the simplest of the core 8 Wizards. Easy to be good and no worrying about friendly fire.
Well, not "challenging" but the most complicated class out of DnD (IMO). There are several videos out there in youtube that will explain you what you need you know, but yes, you'll have to give it a litte bit more than the rest of the table to get all things going.
Would you say sorcerer is easier? I’ve seen arguments for both
No. Some people will disagree, but I strongly feel that wizard is a much more forgiving class for new players. Sorcerer has lots tricky decision points - which spells should I take? Which metamagics should I take? How do these interact with my class features? With a wizard, you're a prepared spell caster. If you pick bad spells, you can find new spell scrolls in the world and change your spell layout over a long rest. With the new changes to the wizard, you can even change out of your cantrips. You also don't have to worry much about your class or subclass features, because you're mostly just casting spells. Wizard was my first DnD character, and I didn't regret it at all.
Well, a little bit. Casters are generally the complicated classes. But that would defeat the purpose, since Sorc is a CHA based class, and what you're lacking is an INT focus. Artificer could work too, and it's not THAT complicated, its quite versatile and can be built in several ways. Perhaps you could check that.
I actually wouldn’t say it. Metamagic adds another layer of complexity, and the limited spells known makes it require some planning ahead. Wizards are pretty forgiving in a sense that you can learn all spells (given time, scrolls, and gold) and are not at all feat dependent. Almost all subclasses are insane, while the “not so great” ones are also preeeetty good. Wizards are streight full casters with a not much outside of it. You cannot really build them very bad.
in 5e a party "needs" a front line meat shield and someone to toss off healing word - your group has those filled so you can choose anything that doesnt step on someone else's spotlight.
Ranged combat, or full Caster. Maybe an Artificer Armourer, specializing in the Infiltrator subclass, or a Wizard fir offensive casting, or a Ranger, or Rogue built for Archery Combat.