Post/Author/DateTime	Post
josephk 06-17-06, 10:05 AM	Anyone made/seen any aura builds? Afaik, there are three aura granting classes, dragon shaman, marshal and divine mind.. They all seem kinda lacking to me (except perhaps the marshall and the chr bonus cheese), but maybe they could be combined for some good stuff? I'm guessing it would have to be a support only class (unfortunately). At first glance the marshal chr boost aura, seems to stack pretty well with the dragon shaman. Who heals based on his Chr. The divine mind auras mostly suck, imho. +1 to hit and damage.. +1 ac.. Until 10th level seems pretty bad to me, and it's not like the mantle auras are much better (the mindlink ones seems okay, but hardly enough to 'save' the class). Having four? (five?) auras active at once, seems pretty cool though, but that would be more or less all such a character is bringing to the table.. So. They all get 3/4th BAB, so I guess they can fight, somewhat atleast. Anyone have any good ideas on how to combine them? Drop the divine mind all together? (let's for a moment forget about the xp penalty), it seems quite hard to get really optimized build out of the aura classes (except for the crazy chr buff builds from marshal)
Todd 06-17-06, 10:26 AM	Aside from healing the Divine Mind auras generally have better effects than the Drgaon Shaman. DM +1 to-hit & damage vs the DS +1 damage for instance, plus the DM has several that stack nicely. The big limitation of the DM is how small the aruas are & that the radius is level dependant. Something like 15' at 5th level. You really have to have a lot of class levels to affect many of your party members. On the upside they can eventually have 3 active at the same time. The DS aruas on the other hand are all 30' but generally aren't as good & even at 20th level you can only have one going at a time. Only the healing & senses auras seem good to me over the long haul ... and the DM has an aura identical to the senses one. Marshal on the other hand has 60' auras from day 1, can have two going at once starting at 2nd level, and can give huge bonuses with a good Cha. Overall a 3 level dip into Marshal is more effective for buffing party members than 5-10 levels of the other two ... well apart from DS healing that is. IMHO all three are lacking a bit. I toyed with a DM 10 / DS 10 build but it just didn't seem worthwhile to me.
EldonG 06-17-06, 11:11 AM	Don't forget the original aura wielder...the Paladin.
josephk 06-17-06, 11:46 AM	Heh, paladin.. So, a hound archon 11/paladin3/Marshal2/divine mind3/dragon shaman1 Would have 6 auras (not counting aura of good) running at the same time? Aura of meance Aura of courage Major marshal aura (+1 damage) Minor marshal aura (+chr to ability check?) Divine mind aura (+1 attack and damage) Dragon shaman aura (??) Bab 12 :/ ... Meh. He would get pretty good synergy for high charisma.. (marshal minor aura, dragon shaman healing, aura of menace DC, lay on hands, paladin smite, + to saves..) unfortunately, most of them are based on class levels as well, which makes it pointless (lay on hands, dragon shaman healing, smite, etc). Oh well.. Not much there I guess, hmm.
EldonG 06-17-06, 11:56 AM	I'm looking into the possibilities, myself...Hound Archon is just too big of an LA, IMO...though the Aura of Menace is good...
josephk 06-17-06, 12:11 PM	Yeah, hound archon is no good, I just wanted to stack another aura on there. Side note: Paladin 10/dragon shaman 10, might not be all bad, if chr is high enough.. 30x chr modifier in healing/day (still vastly inferior to a cleric though, and inferior to pure dragon shaman as well). Chr to saves, smite etc. Bab +17. Nah.. Hm.
DwarvinJedi 06-17-06, 12:25 PM	It is not neccesarily an Aura, but the Frightful Presence feat in Draconomicon gives the ability Frightful Presence
Ske 06-17-06, 01:04 PM	If they're all passive, a single bard level can give +3 to damage and attacks with Inspire Courage, Song of the Heart and the Inspirational Boost spell.
EldonG 06-17-06, 01:34 PM	They are passive...and a Bard would add nicely...any good feats to go along with auras? As to Dragon Shaman/Paladin...I think some race with a bonus to Cha, Dragonborn would work... Using Marshal, what auras seem to synergize? All of them do good stuff, but I can't find a lot of aura synergy there. Still, + Cha bonus to any one of a number of things does rock...
EldonG 06-17-06, 01:46 PM	I really like the Adrenaline boost in thinking about auras, and using Over the Top along with Charging Smite is sweet...so Pally and Marshal synergize in other ways...then add Leadership into the bag...
EldonG 06-17-06, 01:55 PM	Mmmmmm...this gets interesting...Pally/Marshal...Dragon Shaman Dragonborn something...with a Pally/Bard cohort using Words of Creation...am I getting somewhere? :D I think I'm starting to get to the optimization of a small company of crusaders... :cool: Let's see...Gift of Grace gets nice...hmmm...the Cha bonus to saves gets redundant on one character...
EldonG 06-17-06, 02:26 PM	There are a number of exalted classes that have things like Magic Circle against Evil...maybe Defender of Sealtiel...going the Dragonborn route, Vassal of Bahamut seems obvious, and grants an aura of it's own, Imperious... For the Bard...a dip into Emissary of Barachiel would be great, for Calling...
Caelic 06-17-06, 02:45 PM	One important point to keep in mind: Marshal auras, at least, are (Ex) abilities, and function in an AMF. I don't have my books with me, and am therefore unable to say whether other auras share this distinction.
Ganbor 06-17-06, 04:21 PM	If they're all passive, a single bard level can give +3 to damage and attacks with Inspire Courage, Song of the Heart and the Inspirational Boost spell. A. Bard 1 does not qualify for Song of the Heart (needs inspire competence) B. Bard 1 does not get 1st level spells, eg Inspirational Boost.