I'm joining a D&D game in the middle of a campaign, and I need to make a character. I've been told not to worry about "what the group needs", so I have a lot of freedom, but still, I'm reluctant to simply overlap the function of another character exactly. Currently the group consists of:
Dwarf Paladin 4/Fighter 2 (tank in some kind of magical full plate)
Elf Rogue 4/Fighter 2 (utility rogue, a bit combat focused) /w Bard cohort
Ranger 6 (very archery focused)
Sorcerer 6 (evoker-style - a fireball-machine)
Cleric 6 (npc)
If I make a cleric, the npc will probably go away at some convenient time, but I'm not particularly tempted of playing the healbot, so that option is probably out.
I'm tempted to either do some kind of Barbarian multiclass, a druid, or a wizard.
The game is very tactical in style - there is (virtually) no first-person roleplaying, no character-driven plots (I have seen no other character motivations than "do good" and "get rich" so far), so this is an exercise in maximising the utility of a lvl 5 character (I'm starting at half the xp of the other characters which translates into one level behind the rest).
So...do you have any nasty combos? Any good ideas for how I can make myself useful to this group?
It's point-buy, 28 points, everything not in the standard books need to be checked with the GM beforehand.