All casters do not suck at level 2. In fact some are kind of awesome. Druid, Summoner, really good at low levels (and all levels). Wouldnt bother with ranger, barbarian is a good choice, so is paladin which gets some nice stuff at level 2.
Play a human Tattooed Sorcerer, and pick up Spell Focus and Spell Specialization, so you can cast one of your blasting spells (magic missile, shocking grasp, burning hands...) at CL 5. Use the Orc bloodline for +1 damage per die. 5d6+5 at level 2 for a shocking grasp? Hardcore.
So is this a single, one-shot adventure with level 2 PCs, or one of those I hear about every so often where you'll be doing multiple adventures without leveling up?
For a 1 shot at level 2? Rangers are great--one feat short of the Fighter, but they can ignore pre-requisites on it, and probably close to 3 times as many skills. Barbarians with only one rage power are kind of lame. Summoners and Druids are great from level 1, since they bring another entire character with them. And I think every 5 person party should pack a Bard.
So, I guess my answer is:
Rogue (Sigh), Ranger, Druid, Summoner, Bard
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Nothing wrong with a Rogue (and without good casters, would be good to avoid traps).
At Rogue 2, with a human, you can have weapon finesse, TWF, and Two Weapon Defense or Weapon Focus (Short Swords).
I'd not sneeze at a Cleric, either. The channels are still very effective, and having several Bless spells available can really pump the party.
Going to do an adventure where the party stays at level 2, and it will be a lot of dungeon crawl. We have 1 player who is stuck to Rogue, so there's that. If we wanted to optimize, what would the other 4 party members be?
We might not need a combat healer since we get to start with wands of cure light wounds that someone in the party is bound to be able to use outside of combat to heal us up.
Just looking for people's thoughts and advice :) We were probably just going to do something like fighter, barbarian, paladin, ranger since the caster classes all suck at level 2, right?
[Rogue]
SummonerMaster Summoner
Arcane Duelist
Barbarian or Ranger w/animal companion
What makes a level 2 bard so good in a 5 man party? I've never played one. How do would I use him to best benefit the party at such a low level?
Its all the roles she can fill - face, skills, knowledges, etc. Plus and most importantly a variety of buffs that are no where near as limited as what you would normally get out of a 2nd level caster. Inspire Courage + Lingering Performance alone is uber at 2nd level and if you add things like summoned monsters, animal companions, etc. the benefits only increase.
Summoned monsters and/or animal companions are key at this level. They are the only practical way to gain action advantage and they absorb damage that might otherwise kill a PC - a 2nd level Master Summoner who summons 10 augmented Celestial Eagles or Vipers over the course of an adventuring day will do far, far more for you than a Cleric, Oracle or Fighter of the same level.
You can get a lot of mileage and options with a human fighter at lvl 2.
4 feats to build a character and come up with a combat style and strategy that would take most other classes 3 more levels to get to. Have 2 guys play fighters, one built for tanking/melee damage, and one built for cannoning/ranged damage.
Depending on how the DM is doing down time and WBL you will get a lot out of a wizard who abuses scribe scroll and gets a lot of buffs going. Buying scrolls isnt even that difficult, you do have to make a caster level check with a DC of the scrolls CL+1, so a scroll of Haste for example would require a DC of 6, meaning you have to roll a 4 or better on the die to use the scroll.
Rogues are also good at low levels because they can invest into enough different skills by that point to at least be able to attempt things.
A hospitalitor paladin or a true healer cleric could do the band-aiding that you guys will need at lvl 2. None of you will have a lot of HP. Except maybe the tanky fighter, who pretty much has to take toughness.