[thastygliax]

I've only really played 5th as a PC once, but have been DMing it on and off for a year or two now. That one PC was a tiefling warlock with the Great Old One patron, because I like magic, am a hopeless Lovecraft junkie, and my friends wanted to play the martial types in that first game. (I've been playing D&D since Basic/Expert/AD&D 1e, so can usually find a concept I want to play without too much trouble even when it's a brand-new edition.)

In the Tales from the Yawning Portal game that I'm currently running, the PCs are 4th level, and all of them are pretty effective in a fight. The dragonborn sorcerer mostly slings cantrips, saving her breath weapon, thunderwave, and witchbolt for the harder fights. The dwarf paladin is decently tanky, and can take things down quickly when he has the spell slots left for divine smite. The human ranger is a sharpshooter, so doesn't have to worry about cover, and can do a ton of extra damage if the enemy has a low AC. And the tiefling rogue uses cunning action, two weapon fighting, and sneak attack to move around the battle quickly to dish out big hits where they're most needed.