I've got a little time now.
What we already have, as the DM put it, is "a
wizard, a
druid, and a
minigun." Fairly decent potential for all of them, but both the spellcasters are very inexperienced, and the shooter is deliberately fairly one-dimensional so as not to step on other players' toes. Another player was expected to serve as eyes and ears and front line warrior, but that didn't work out.
The wizard is clever enough to be flying and/or invisible for tough fights, but then he makes battlefield control decisions like placing
stinking cloud as an instant barrier between the PCs and enemies who have already demonstrated a penchant for stealth, losing them for us. He's only got so many spells per day to go around, anyway. No significant lasting defensive options, so if he suffers a surprise round or loses initiative, he just plain loses.
The druid's animal companion (and to a lesser extent the druid) get smashed by ranged attacks before they can do much of anything, and then they're left too brittle to do much more than whimper after they or the enemies close to melee range. Fortunately, the druid has some
cure light and
lesser vigor sticks, rather than wasting prepared spell slots on healing. Unfortunately, the wands are typically in extradimensional space and wild shape melded out of availability like the rest of her crap when she needs 'em.
The minigun can take care of himself when opponents close with him. He lacks the reach, special attack options, and infliction of status conditions to effectively restrain or otherwise delay enemies that would prefer to pass him by and go after the spellcasters. He is so much more effective at medium to long range that melee combat is a reluctant last resort for him; martial maneuvers see very little use as a result.
Nobody has much in the way of ability to notice things at a distance (or even pretty nearby, if they're good at going unnoticed). I think the best Spot and Listen modifiers in the gang are +6 each. So far we've managed to find one invisible enemy through blind luck, noticing that weeds and vines from an
entangle spell were wrapped around something that wasn't there.
We're playing Red Hand of Doom, and while we'd like to avoid spoilers, early indications are that we can safely assume nearly all of the region is behind enemy lines... I'd like to have sense options that are working all the time, not only when I know I need them and can spare limited resources such as spell slots or magic item uses. I would prefer to not use a druid, or to use one so dramatically different from the one we already have that she won't feel redundant and become resentful.
