I'm a level 3 Bone Knight / 7 Cleric (yes I forgot to give myself the feat at level 9 and now playing catch-up, but that also means I'm ok with picking something that would require me to wait until level 12 to get full benefit like a DMM)
anyway I'm the party's primary healer which I mostly just use the 3 wands of Cure moderate wounds we have acquired unless they need a huge boost and I assist in battle with pump and tricky spells (Cat's Grace, Protection from Energy, Invisibility, etc) but I also excel well with Summons (Summon Undead is my favorite but I am diving more into the bigger ones like Summon Bearded Devil, etc).
So right now I'm trying to think of feats that would be a huge help to our party (maybe making what I do much better and more efficient). Right now I have Eschew Materials, Quicken Spell, DMM (Quicken Spell). The ones I was thinking about taking are:
Scribe Scroll (for obvious reasons, would be nice to make a couple scrolls of Summon Undead 5 so I can use the slot for something more useful for the party and make me more useful in long battles). I looked into Craft Wand, Craft Magic Arms and Armor and whatnot but the XP cost is too high and the better items that I would make take too long (20,000gp item takes 20 days to make... way too long).
Dimentional Reach (Benefit: As long as you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 3rd level higher available to cast, you can transport small items directly into your hand as a standard action. You must have line of sight to an item you wish to transport in this way, and it must be unattended. This ability works at a range of up to 5 feet per level of the highest-level summoning spell you have available to cast, and the item can weigh up to 2 pounds per level of that spell. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (summoning) spells) Pretty sweet little spell, without a Theif in the party it would make me more useful outside of battle which is nice,
Summon Elemental (Benefit: As long as you have a summoning spell of 4th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Small elemental (air, earth, fire, or water; your choice) within a range of 30 feet. The elemental acts as if summoned by a summon monster spell (PH 285). The duration of the summoning is equal to 1 round per level of the highest-level conjuration (summoning) spell you have available to cast. You can have only one summoned elemental from this feat at a time; if you use the ability a second time, the first elemental disappears. Also, you must remain close to the elemental you summon. If at the end of your turn you are more than 30 feet from the elemental, it disappears. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 6th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Medium elemental instead. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 8th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Large elemental instead. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (summoning) I spells.) Nice little bonus to always have an elemental with me.
I do have a question about how the +1 bonus works on my summons... what are the benefits exactly? I'm thinking it is a +1 bonus against banishment. Is there anything else?
Thanks in advance for the help!
I do have a question about how the +1 bonus works on my summons... what are the benefits exactly? I'm thinking it is a +1 bonus against banishment. Is there anything else?
In addition to that slightly improved ability to resist dispelling, you're also getting an extra round of duration and possibly another 5 feet on the range.
hey I reached level 9 the other day and I'm not sure what feat I should take. I've noticed a few that look decent but I'm not sure I want to take them. First I'll explain my character.
I'm a level 3 Bone Knight / 7 Cleric (yes I forgot to give myself the feat at level 9 and now playing catch-up, but that also means I'm ok with picking something that would require me to wait until level 12 to get full benefit like a DMM)
anyway I'm the party's primary healer which I mostly just use the 3 wands of Cure moderate wounds we have acquired unless they need a huge boost and I assist in battle with pump and tricky spells (Cat's Grace, Protection from Energy, Invisibility, etc) but I also excel well with Summons (Summon Undead is my favorite but I am diving more into the bigger ones like Summon Bearded Devil, etc).
So right now I'm trying to think of feats that would be a huge help to our party (maybe making what I do much better and more efficient). Right now I have Eschew Materials, Quicken Spell, DMM (Quicken Spell).
A few notes.
1) See this before you plunk down any resources on more healing equipment. Each wand of Cure Moderate Wounds that you find and choose to use only restores 600 hit points. If you choose to sell the wand at half price and buy Cure Light Wounds wands with the resulting cash, you'd be able to afford three of them, or 825 hit points. And heaven help you if you're healing in the middle of battle, particularly as a bone knight.
2) Why on earth do you have Eschew Materials? That feat saves you a single gold piece per spell at absolute most. You may very well retire before it pays for the cost of your spell component pouch. If you're concerned about spellcasting, use a light shield instead of a heavy (as the light shield allows you to hold items in that hand, even though the hand isn't usable for much - that's enough to manipulate spell components and hold on to a divine focus for you).
3) Bone Knights are, generally speaking, gish-style classes with a strong undead-leadership theme rather than "classical" support-caster-style (although their casting advancement is certainly good enough to serve that role). You would be better suited, as a result, to have taken Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell), as this will allow your buffs to last the whole day instead of consuming swift actions in the middle of combat to put up each spell. (DMM: Quicken isn't a bad feat though - you can certainly make it work.)
4) You really, really should understand your Animate Dead spell (and how it interacts with your Rebuke Undead capacity and your Bone March capacity, which are all separate limits) before you plan out how to work with a bone knight.
Moving on.
Scribe Scroll(for obvious reasons, would be nice to make a couple scrolls of Summon Undead 5 so I can use the slot for something more useful for the party and make me more useful in long battles). I looked into Craft Wand, Craft Magic Arms and Armor and whatnot but the XP cost is too high and the better items that I would make take too long (20,000gp item takes 20 days to make... way too long).
If you're using a single spell over and over and over, wands are better than scrolls. The XP cost isn't as significant as you think, particularly with the might that a Bone Knight can provide on the minion front. (Basically, if your DM is handing out XP as the DMG says, you can stay one level behind the rest of your party and actually gain more XP over the course of any given encounter than you would otherwise. If you take any XP over and above what you would need to remain just one level behind the party and dedicate it to item creation, you end up with a remarkable amount of "free" gear at the cost of slightly delayed advancement. This sucks a lot for a pure spellcaster - but for a warrior/caster like a bone knight, and one who can bring several extra actions to the field in the form of powerful undead minions, you can compensate.)
The time to create the items is a problem (for a few more levels at least - Eberron doesn't have an easy-to-reach Flowing Time plane), so if you aren't getting downtime though, you might want to skip it and just buy the wands.
Dimentional Reach(Benefit: As long as you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 3rd level higher available to cast, you can transport small items directly into your hand as a standard action. You must have line of sight to an item you wish to transport in this way, and it must be unattended. This ability works at a range of up to 5 feet per level of the highest-level summoning spell you have available to cast, and the item can weigh up to 2 pounds per level of that spell. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (summoning) spells) Pretty sweet little spell, without a Theif in the party it would make me more useful outside of battle which is nice,
If a "thief" is in the party then their job probably isn't short-range pickpocketing so much as, say, acting as the party face, trapscout, or spy. I wouldn't spend a feat on this.
Summon Elemental(Benefit: As long as you have a summoning spell of 4th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Small elemental (air, earth, fire, or water; your choice) within a range of 30 feet. The elemental acts as if summoned by a summon monster spell (PH 285). The duration of the summoning is equal to 1 round per level of the highest-level conjuration (summoning) spell you have available to cast. You can have only one summoned elemental from this feat at a time; if you use the ability a second time, the first elemental disappears. Also, you must remain close to the elemental you summon. If at the end of your turn you are more than 30 feet from the elemental, it disappears. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 6th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Medium elemental instead. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 8th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Large elemental instead. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (summoning) I spells.) Nice little bonus to always have an elemental with me.
You have better minions always with you than a Small elemental. Have you looked at what Animate Dead can do for you?
I do have a question about how the +1 bonus works on my summons... what are the benefits exactly? I'm thinking it is a +1 bonus against banishment. Is there anything else?
Not necessarily (the Banishment spell won't work on summoned undead since they're not extraplanar). Basically, you cast spells as a 9th level cleric. A +1 bonus on your caster level means that your summon spells would behave as if you were 10th level (although you wouldn't get extra spell slots or spell level access). This means your summons last a little longer, can be cast slightly further away, and are slightly more resilient against Dispel Magic effects (since those work on a caster level check).
..."window.parent.tinyMCE.get('post_content').onLoad.dispatch();" contenteditable="true">Scribe Scroll (for obvious reasons, would be nice to make a couple scrolls of Summon Undead 5 so I can use the slot for something more useful for the party and make me more useful in long battles). I looked into Craft Wand, Craft Magic Arms and Armor and whatnot but the XP cost is too high and the better items that I would make take too long (20,000gp item takes 20 days to make... way too long).
If you're using a single spell over and over and over, wands are better than scrolls.
Wands normally only hold up to 4th-level spells, though, which won't help for summon undead V.
Crash, for a spell you cast a lot, you can probably just use your spell slots; you'll be getting more spell slots as you advance in level anyway, and it takes you a day to make a scroll that you use up in a round, so you should save scrolls for things you're not sure you'll need every day, but will really want if a specific problem comes up.
In case it's relevant, what deity, domains, and alignment do you have?
My Deity is the Traveler, and I have Trickery and Time Domains (DM approved Time, I was actually the one who pointed out that Time was not on The Traveler's Domain list).
Thanks for the posts guys, at the very least I am cutting some feat ideas.
The DM likes this idea and I think it is what I want to go with, it actually goes great with my character (he is a Major in the Rekkenmark army and plans to keep going until he is a High Councellor).
If any one has any ideas of what my next feats should be I'd love to hear your inputs.
Thanks again for your posts.
EDIT: When I say Thief I mean Rogue, lol. But I think you guys got that. :P
I think I may end up taking Leadership. I was thinking of opening up a shop of some kind (likely a weapon/armor smith since I have the skills anyway) and having the smaller followers run that may prove useful. Also we only have a party of 3 now (our 4th member, a thief, is too busy with married life to be a nerd, sad times, lol) so I was thinking of making my cohort his thief so he can level up and if our friend feels like joining us from time to time he can while not being 10 levels behind.
The DM likes this idea and I think it is what I want to go with, it actually goes great with my character (he is a Major in the Rekkenmark army and plans to keep going until he is a High Councellor).
Leadership is one of those gamechanging feats that can have a disproportionate impact on game, particularly if you're the one designing and controlling your cohort (some DMs run it differently). That's usually the only concern with it - if your DM is okay with it, then there probably won't be issues with it. It does also match up well if you're an officer in the military (I presume you meant Karrnathi army and a member of the Order of Rekkenmark - the latter actually provides staff officers that are basically a small number of followers anyway, albeit ones with PC classes.). Add in good quality undead soldiers - remembering that Karrns are culturally okay with the Corps of the Honored Dead, provided you're using and treating them respectfully - you can bring quite the diverse force to the table.
As an aside, your DM seems to skip XP for characters who aren't present, which isn't always the way it's done. In my experience it's usually better to assign XP to the entire party at a fixed rate, but there are scenarios where this just isn't possible mechanically (level adjustments come to mind, unless you simplify them).
For a slight variation, you could consider Undead Leadership (Libris Mortis) which is basically the same, but treats your leadership score as 4 points lower for attracting living followers, but 2 points higher for attracting undead followers (which is fine if you wanted undead anyway). It doesn't seem to change the cohort at all, apart from saying that an undead cohort can be of the same level as a normal cohort.
I'd suggest a necrosis carnex (Monster Manual IV) as support for undead troops, depending on whether or not you feel it's a respectful use of corpses; it's definitely useful, but it's also something stitched together from corpse parts.
Usually it's a problem because Leadership can give you a secondary character almost as powerful as your own (it's a feat that gives you another character, with their own feats), but I'd say it does work pretty well for this case, where the cohort is essentially a part-time player.
For a slight variation, you could consider Undead Leadership (Libris Mortis) which is basically the same, but treats your leadership score as 4 points lower for attracting living followers, but 2 points higher for attracting undead followers (which is fine if you wanted undead anyway). It doesn't seem to change the cohort at all, apart from saying that an undead cohort can be of the same level as a normal cohort.
I'd suggest a necrosis carnex (Monster Manual IV) as support for undead troops, depending on whether or not you feel it's a respectful use of corpses; it's definitely useful, but it's also something stitched together from corpse parts.
Interesting - I never noticed that before, instead assuming that it shifted the cohort as well.
Regarding other undead: The Karrnathi zombies and skeletons (EbCS) aren't terribly impressive at higher levels because they lack advancement entries (I personally would have done it as a template for humanoid undead), but for their HD/CR they're not bad and they certainly meet the Karrnathi cultural expectation. You're also able to make them at Bone Knight 5 using a spell-like ability, which bypasses the need for onyx (provided you're controlling them via Bone March (or releasing control and then Rebuking them) instead of through Animate Dead).
If you're looking for spellcasting support, I would definitely consider a Slaymate (Libris Mortis); I forget offhand if they've got default Eberron fluff but you can probably come up with some of your own.
Usually it's a problem because Leadership can give you a secondary character almost as powerful as your own (it's a feat that gives you another character, with their own feats), but I'd say it does work pretty well for this case, where the cohort is essentially a part-time player.
For a slight variation, you could consider Undead Leadership (Libris Mortis) which is basically the same, but treats your leadership score as 4 points lower for attracting living followers, but 2 points higher for attracting undead followers (which is fine if you wanted undead anyway). It doesn't seem to change the cohort at all, apart from saying that an undead cohort can be of the same level as a normal cohort.
I'd suggest a necrosis carnex (Monster Manual IV) as support for undead troops, depending on whether or not you feel it's a respectful use of corpses; it's definitely useful, but it's also something stitched together from corpse parts.
So awesome, soooooooooooooo awesome. lol.
I love the fact that my undead followers are 2 levels higher and the cohort wont have a penalty if I go living (which I think I will, would be less conspicuous. This could end up being better for my Smith Shop as well, I do remember reading about a trick about using undead as assembly line workers, if it works out the way I expect it to I can get 3 times the production (no sleep). :P
Thanks for the idea.
Is there a way they can make money for me another way? Are they more useful elsewhere?
does anyone know of a good way they can make money for me?
haha yeah giving them abilities like that would be very useful. I know I'm not taking a skill like that, lol.
does anyone know of a good way they can make money for me?
Give them some coin stamps and a bunch of metal blanks?
More seriously, if you don't want to annoy your DM by inflating your wealth, you could get some land and have them build you a personal fortress (which would normally requiring dipping into your normal wealth). A more direct way to benefit is to get minions that can save you money by cheaply performing services that you might need, like casting identify without material components (if you can get an appropriate divine caster, or a dragonfire adept).