So my dm has given me the opportunity to get a cohort. Which is great because up until now its been a 3 person party. My cohort would come in at level 6.
The party consists of:
- CG Elf Wizard 8-(big fan of save or suck/utility spells)
- NG Elf Druid 8-(effectively useless)
- NE Human Barbarian 2/Fighter 4/ Frenzied 2 (Standard Uber-Charger)
I (the barbarian) am the only one who know how to optimize, the wizard is passable, but the druid is awful(bad spells/feats/never wildshapes/forgets to attack). So I've been looking at what the party needs, so I started making a factotum/chameleon skill monkey. But I figured to heck with balance, I want to make my cohort as much help to me as possible.
I was thinking along the lines of a NE Cleric. But I'm unfamiliar with cleric builds, I expect all of the persist cheese, but other than that, I'm not sure where to go from there. I was hoping that I could also make them into a crafter of some kind. To further enchant my weapon and armor(artificer is out of the question)
The DM has ruled that all divine casters use divine metamagic inherently. So that opens up a feat right there.
Any help would be appreciated. thanks.
Not a big fan of the Divine myself but;
-Cleric 12 / Combat medic 5 / Hierophant 3 (with the right feats make for a good healer)
-Cleric 20 (duh :3)
-Cleric ?/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 10 (great heal-bot)
Or if your just looking for a fun Divine class to play, try the Archivist from HoH. Again, I'm not too keen when it comes to divine-cheese but I hope my 2 cp helped...
The DM has ruled that all divine casters use divine metamagic inherently. So that opens up a feat right there.
Oh my
god...
Give me a minute to let that soak in...
Oh my god... Seriously. This belongs on George Carlin's list of "phrases never before spoken in the history of the world". It doesn't open up a feat, it gives you a whole bunch of feats for free. Normally you have to take DMM multiple times if you want to apply it to more than one metamagic feat (once per MM feat you want to apply it to).
Take Persistent, Quicken, and Chain Spell. And Craft Rod (to make Nightsticks). Hell, it might be worth dipping into Dread Necromancer for a level to get a separate pool of Turn/Rebuke attempts. If you did this, any Extra Turning feats you take would apply to both pools individually. You can get Extend Spell from the Planning domain, and Extra Turning from the Undeath domain.
- NG Elf Druid 8-(effectively useless)
That point allmost made me poop myself. How is Druid and useless even possible in the same sentence :S
Well my ideal would be:
NE Lesser Asimar Necropolitan Cloistered Cleric of Vecna (Planning Domain spell compendium, trade knowdledge domain for Knowdledge devotion CCham, trade other domain for the ability to add one arcane spell per level to your spell list CMage), the lower BAB will be neglected by persisted Divine Power (or Divine Strenght, never remember the right name) once it levels up.
Make it take Item Familiar in his Holy Symbol, then enhances it into that magic item from spell compendium that grants up to 3 turn attemps per day for 1000gp, then add extra use per day by further enhancing it (+750 for second set of charges and +500 for any further set of charges sinces the ability is similar to itself), don't forget that NA bonus and Wis bonuses can be be added to amulets without overcosts.
Remember, if you are going DMM(persist), occular spell is your best freind since allows to cast touch spells at fixed range.
Suggaested spells for complete mage variant:
- True casting
- Glitterdust
- Haste
- Celerity
- Draconic Polymorph (since lesser Asimar is treated as both Humanoid an autsider you can Draconic Polymorph into Deva or your favorite angel for the irony)
- -
- -
- Otto's Irrisistable Dance in conjunction with chain spell
- Maw of Chaos
Assets at its level: persisted(prayer, Mass Lesser Vigor, Elation BoED), undead inmunities, messes up with the druid by existing, easy to handle since it gives pasive bonuses.
Yawar
The DM has ruled that all divine casters use divine metamagic inherently. So that opens up a feat right there.
That's it right there you do not need help. Abuse that. Your DM is either new or a moron.
Eeeeh.... maybe I'm saying stupid now from an optimizers point of view, but if I get u right, u have a 3 persons party from which u r the only one who knows how to optimize a character, up to the point where u have a 8th level druid that sucks...
And you want to have advise on how to make your cohort rock with houserules that are, eh, quite abusable?
My advise would be: skip the cohort, explain to your DM why the houserules wouldn't be the best idea in the world and help your druid. In the long term, it would help your party more then an uber DMM-cleric.
Eeeeh.... maybe I'm saying stupid now from an optimizers point of view, but if I get u right, u have a 3 persons party from which u r the only one who knows how to optimize a character, up to the point where u have a 8th level druid that sucks...
And you want to have advise on how to make your cohort rock with houserules that are, eh, quite abusable?
My advise would be: skip the cohort, explain to your DM why the houserules wouldn't be the best idea in the world and help your druid. In the long term, it would help your party more then an uber DMM-cleric.
+10
Few things can ruin a game like a player's cohort outshining the rest of the party put together.
Eeeeh.... maybe I'm saying stupid now from an optimizers point of view, but if I get u right, u have a 3 persons party from which u r the only one who knows how to optimize a character, up to the point where u have a 8th level druid that sucks...
And you want to have advise on how to make your cohort rock with houserules that are, eh, quite abusable?
My advise would be: skip the cohort, explain to your DM why the houserules wouldn't be the best idea in the world and help your druid. In the long term, it would help your party more then an uber DMM-cleric.
+10
Few things can ruin a game like a player's cohort outshining the rest of the party put together.
On second thought i agree with this.
I completely agree, helping the druid would be a greater help than getting a uber cohort. and believe me when I say that I've been trying to do just that(since the campaign began at 4th level). Its simply a futile effort.
When a characters combat tactics are 1)body of the sun 2)wade into melee 3)hold action 4) get ko-ed. There is ony so much I can do. And I may have been a bit tough on the wiz, he can optimize, but hes just a little thick at point (he doesn't know/like too many prcs).
I really love the item familiar/nightstick option. What book is enhancing an item familiar in though?
And believe it or not, the dm is conviced that the inherent DMM was a way to nerf the party a bit. He knew one person was playing a druid and, knowing the broken-ness of the druid, decided that metamagic for divine casters would be based off of DMM. So druid=no turn attempts, druid= no metamagic.
And you want to have advise on how to make your cohort rock with houserules that are, eh, quite abusable?
Now, I don't excatly want a rocking cohort, rather a cohort to an ubercharger that would turn me into a super-ubercharger. I won't be playing a cleric that wades into battle, divine power, celerity etc. I'll have the cleric charge me up, and maybe even the druid so it doesn't become as useless.
I wouldn't have the cleric outshine the party, I would simply have it cast a spotlight on it.
I really love the item familiar/nightstick option. What book is enhancing an item familiar in though?
Item Familiar is powerful and risky feat from Unearthed Arcana, it alouds the user to bound himself to an item so he can enchant it without the pertinant item creation feats and invest his skillpoints, XP and spellslots for profit, it aquires sentinence eventually. The guide lines for upgrading an item are in the DMG and are revised in the Magic Item Compendium.
Now, I don't excatly want a rocking cohort, rather a cohort to an ubercharger that would turn me into a super-ubercharger. I won't be playing a cleric that wades into battle, divine power, celerity etc. I'll have the cleric charge me up, and maybe even the druid so it doesn't become as useless.
I wouldn't have the cleric outshine the party, I would simply have it cast a spotlight on it.
Then persist a bounch of aura-like spells so the cohort gives a decent amount of pasive bonuses to the whole party, suggestions in previous posts. Be sure to pick Chain Spell for slot efficeincy (with DMM).
My suggested buffs is Golarion's Blessing Spell Compendium, it makes the recipeint grow an additional pair of arms. Acording to Savage Species, each extra arm with wich you wield a weapon adds an extra +1/2 STR modifier to damage (+2 1/2 wielding a weapon four-handed) and an extra +1 damage/ -1 to hit while using power attack (+4 to damage/ -1 to hit wielding a weapon four-handed). Extrapolating, it would be +1.5 damage/ -1 to hit and +2 damage/ -1 to hit per arm respectively with each Power Attack upgrade.
Rage, Frenzy, Charge, Leap Attack, Shock Trooper......DIE!!!!!!!!!
Make sure the has always prepare Close Wounds for stabilizing you and that would be it
Yawar
I like the buffing cleric idea personally, though I'd advise against using him to buff your character alone, since you probably already dominate a lot of encounters. Too bad about that druid though.