Despite feeling a bit cheated out of an awesome character, I have decided it was for the better, as I completely overshadowed all of the other characters in the group. Ergo, my search here is not for a super-optimized character that can destroy anything in the game. Rather, optimizing the concept as best you can. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
The overall concept is that of a Half-Orc Sorcerer who is thoroughly convinced that his Pseudodragon familiar is actually a diety that has granted him his ability to manipulate the powers of the universe. He worships his familiar as a god and will not be convinced otherwise...mostly because he is too stupid to realize the truth. It is especially difficult to bring to light this ruse, as the pseudodragon herself is convinced she is a true dragon and that all dragons are, in fact, gods. She is still Neutral Good and doesn't seek to subjugate anyone, but wishes to one day reach her true size and potential by gaining followers. Shaard is the first of, hopefully, many.
All sources are available, except Dragon Magazine and third-party materials.
The build:
Shaard
NG Half-Orc Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 7/Abjurant Champion 3
Stats after racial mods and levels:
Str 18/ Dex 10/Con 15/Int 8/Wis 8/Cha 18
Feats: (1) Combat Casting, (3) OPEN SLOT, (6) Arcane Strike, (9) Improved Familiar: Pseudodragon
That's all I've got so far. I'd really like some suggestions for my 3rd level feat slot, but the biggest question I have is spell selection. The Battle Sorcerer variant reduces my spells known and spells per day by one at each level, and the Stalwart sorcerer variant reduces my 5th level spells known by one as well. My DM is being quite kind and is allowing me to select one 5th level spell known anyway, but that's the only one I'll have for the next two levels.
So, what spells should I take that will help me convince others that my pseudodragon familiar is a god? It would be great if the spells served a useful purpose beyond that, but the flavor is well worth the sacrifice in power, IMO.
Think about if you were in the party with me and all of a sudden my character's little dragon did something awesome that made you go, "Wow, maybe it really is more than it seems." What would it have to do?
Thank you for your time.
i personaly would do Stalwart sorcerer and add in a few levels of Swiftblade
maybe something like this
Stalwart Sorcerer 6/ Swiftblade 3 / Abjurant Champion 5 / XXX 6
you give up 1 level of spells
and will need to take a flaw to enter Abj Champion at ecl 10 but your feats can look something like this
1 - Dodge
flaw - Martial Weapon Pro - your weapon of choice
3 Mobility
6 Combat Casting
9 Improved Framiliar
12 arcane strike
it may not be exactly what you were thinking but its close
or you can go a slightly different route because of the Shared Spell ability and help the party out a bit as well
Sorcerer 6 / War Weaver 5 / anyfull casting 9
focus on transumations and you may want to try this feat from Dragon Compendium
Ability Enhancer
Prerequistit : Spell Focus Transmutation
( lots of text to say ) add +2 to all transumtations spells that give an enhancement bonus to any stat
and try to get Arcane Disicple for the Hero Domain or some way of adding Giant Size to your spells known. to let your Framiliar gain size ( medium needs caster level 17 for collosal you will have to look for tiny )
hope this helps
ron
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Level | Class | Feats/Abilities | BAB | HP
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Level 1: B. Sorcerer [Drac. Heritage], Combat Casting, [Devil's Favor] +0 8
Level 2: B. Sorcerer /Iron Will - Otyugh Pit/ +1 5
Level 3: B. Sorcerer Obtain Familiar +2 5
Level 4: B. Sorcerer +3 5
Level 5: B. Sorcerer +3 5
Level 6: B. Sorcerer Improved Familiar +4 5
Level 7: B. Sorcerer [Quasit Familiar] +5 5
Level 8: Abj. Champion +6 6
Level 9: Abj. Champion Dodge +7 6
Level 10: Abj. Champion +8 6
Level 11: Abj. Champion +9 6
Level 12: Dragonslayer Battle Caster +10 6 (mithril full plate)
Level 13: Abj. Champion +11 6
Level 14: B. Sorcerer +12 5
I added Dragonslayer mainly for the armor proficiencies, since that let me use medium armor without penalty (i.e. mithril full plate) and it kept up my base attack bonus for one more level. The character actually lost bluff (I believe through battle sorcerer), but I wanted it enough to sacrifice my familiar for the draconic feat that grants it as a class skill. That might work for your character as well (in which case you'll want Obtain Familiar too), since bluffing is likely essential to convincing other creatures your dragon is a god. The other benefit for this is that your familiar abilities will be based upon your arcane caster level rather than your sorcerer level.
The dragonblood subtype you pick up is also worthwhile for the Draconic Aura feat, which will let you bolster your companions and yourself. (Alternatively, you could just go with a frostblood orc.)
Another option for feats would be the metamagic feat that allows you to make a spell appear to have come from another creature (can't remember the source at the moment, it was in the same book as Invisible Spell though). Your familiar being the one casting all of your spells and you being the stupid meat shield should be a good step in convincing the party it's more impressive than it actually is.
Instead of battle sorcerer and such, you could use a skillful weapon (Complete Mage). It's a +2 weapon property that gives you a cleric's base attack bonus if yours is worse. This would reduce your base attack bonus from +8 to +7, but it gives you back a spell known and spell per day of each level. It also gives you around 5 levels to put into any full-casting prestige class you like.
A mithral feycraft (DMGII) chain shirt with thistledown padding (Races of the Wild) has no arcane spell failure and only costs 1,850 gp.
The urban companion alternate class feature lets you trade a druid's animal companion for a familiar. If you don't want to overshadow the other players and you want to confuse them about what class you are, you can use the simple druid variant to trade wild shape for a monk's AC bonus and a ranger's favored enemy.
That way it is more powerful than a standard familiar
1 - familiar pocket
2 - augment familiar
3 - enhance familiar, fortify familiar
6 - imbue familiar with spell ability
Admittedly, pocket is worthless and imbue is just out of reach in spite of suiting your request perfectly... but there are some options available. Failing that, spells that are eligible to be shared with your familiar should be to your liking, since you can flavor them as 'draconic majesty, generously bestowed upon humble follower Shaard.' Buffing probably isn't a bad area to focus on anyway, since you'll have relatively few spell slots to work with.
I do feel the need to echo the point that a pseudodragon cohort would be eligible for class levels and therefore awesome, although I think the cheesiness of making it a familiar as well results in a hard sell to a DM.
Why Battle Sorcerer instead of normal Sorcerer? Surely a PrC would help your BAB and HP more than losing spells known.
Battle sorcerer can help qualify for a prestige class, since you're picking up your BAB more quickly. For the same reason, the skillful weapon enhancement won't help, since it won't impact your actual BAB for requirements. There are alternatives obviously, but if you're looking for something simple battle sorcerer can help.
@ lycanthrope0
After reviewing swiftblade, I must say, it's a powerful class. Unfortunately, the loss of caster progression completely turns me off to it. Same goes for War Weaver. As a Sorcerer (Battle, Stalwart, or otherwise) I'm already a level behind prepared casters so so I simply cannot justify putting off higher level spell access any further. Also, Arcane Disciple is out of the question due to my very low wisdom score. Thank you for the ideas though!
@ Balthanon
Some excellent ideas here! It's great to hear from someone who has played a similar concept before. Care to share anything about the actual gaming experience? Character interactions, problems you encoutnered, the build's power comparability, etc.
I hadn't read of this Otyugh Pit before and it'll be a hard sell to the DM, but I'm definitely going to try. Also, I see you took the Improved Familiar feat at 6th and then waited until 7th level to actually gain the familiar. This is brilliant and I'm ashamed I hadn't even considered this an option when I read it. This means I can take the feat at level three and say I didn't gain my Pseudodragon until level seven. This is cool because it opens up my ninth level feat slot instead of third which I can use my higher BAB/spell level access/skill ranks to qualify for a better feat. This IS legal, right?
Finally, this metamagic feat you mention is relevant to my interests. I've tried google and crystal keep and have found nothing. Any guess as to where it might be?
@ Maat_Mons
While the Skillful Weapon enhancement is powerful indeed, what happens when the weapon is sundered/disarmed? My DM loathes PCs that rely entirely on one or very few specific items to make her character viable and I share the sentiment. Class abilites are far more useful than items that can easily be stolen/lost/destroyed, IMO.
This pertains to the armor you mentioned as well. While it's friggin' amazing and I will absolutely use it on a PC in the future, I simply cannot rely on it in the campaign. Thank you for the suggestions though!
@ Endarire
Battle Sorcerer has everything I need for this character all rolled up in a nice, simple package. The increased HD for the first seven levels results in at least 14 additional HP, which is a lot to a sorcerer. Also, the incread BAB, light armor casting and martial weapon proficiency is paramount to a warrior-type character. I'll agree that for your standard caster-type, vanilla Sorcerer is far superior with its increases spells-know/per day, but this is not your standard sorcerer
@ kheros
Now that's an interesting idea. The Dragon cohort feat from Draconomicon may be an option as well. I'll pass it by my DM and see what he says. I'm hoping he'll allow it because this is nearly perfect! Thank you!
@ Dead_Weasel
Excellent! This was exactly what I was looking for when I posted here: spells that can make my familiar appear more deific. I'd like to reinforce your suggestion to buffing spells as I have envisioned the character as more melee-oriented, tank type of character. Therefore, such buffing spells would go a long way towards enhancing survivability of my light-armored melee sorc. Which buff spells are the most beneficial in your opinion, keeping in mind the share-spell ability of my familiar?
Some final points:
1) My DM has ruled that Bluff is not necessary for either my familiar or myself as the pseudodragon actually believes it is a deity, as does my character.
2) The class levels I have selected are now set in stone (Battle Sorc 7/Abjurant Champ 3)
3) I am mostly interested in my spell selection. I am open to any suggestions that are either very versatile spells (Shadow Conjuration, et al) or go a long way towards making my familiar appear as though it has divine powers (healing, curing diseases, banishing demons/curses, etc)
4) I am to fill the tank role of the party any suggestions about how to do so effectively as a sorcerer would be greatly appreciated. My familiar can easily Aid-another every round should I need her to, but would it be viable/recommended to use her as a flanking buddy instead?
Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming!
While the Skillful Weapon enhancement is powerful indeed, what happens when the weapon is sundered/disarmed?
The purpose of using a skillful weapon is to free you to put all your resources into spellcasting. If you are deprived of the weapon, you have not lost your effectiveness because you are actually a dedicated spellcaster, not a gish. You just have the ability to function as a pseudo-gish when you want.
There's nothing wrong with a true gish, if that's what you want. I was just pointing out an option.
@ Balthanon
Some excellent ideas here! It's great to hear from someone who has played a similar concept before. Care to share anything about the actual gaming experience? Character interactions, problems you encoutnered, the build's power comparability, etc.
I hadn't read of this Otyugh Pit before and it'll be a hard sell to the DM, but I'm definitely going to try. Also, I see you took the Improved Familiar feat at 6th and then waited until 7th level to actually gain the familiar. This is brilliant and I'm ashamed I hadn't even considered this an option when I read it. This means I can take the feat at level three and say I didn't gain my Pseudodragon until level seven. This is cool because it opens up my ninth level feat slot instead of third which I can use my higher BAB/spell level access/skill ranks to qualify for a better feat. This IS legal, right?
Finally, this metamagic feat you mention is relevant to my interests. I've tried google and crystal keep and have found nothing. Any guess as to where it might be?
Never actually played with the cohort actually, just had him in reserve-- by the time I got my thrall/cohort I had shifted to more of a domination focus with the original character. As a result we had bags of meat shields floating around, so I wanted a purer caster type as my cohort.
Taking Improved Familiar a bit earlier and waiting is legal. You actually need to go through a ritual in order to summon a familiar and you couldn't technically time that exactly anyway.
The feat is actually in Cityscape, along with Invisible Spell like I thought. It's called Deceptive Spell and is a +1 spell level modifier. (Invisible Spell is actually a 0 level adjustment.) Otyugh Pit is a legendary location in Complete Scoundrel if you're not familiar with it-- sounded like you were though.
The prerequisites on improved familiar make no sense. It says “compatible alignment, sufficiently high level.” As Balthanon says, you need to perform a ritual to acquire a familiar. The feat says it adds all the listed creatures to the list of familiars you can summon, not a single selected creature. At the time you take the feat, you don't single a creature out in any way. There's no single alignment or level the prerequisites could be referring to.
Balthanon: Good call on Deceptive Spell & Invisible Spell; their respective adjustments remain a point of confusion to me, but they fit the concept very nicely indeed.
Maat_Mons: I agree that the weapon property you describe would be helpful, but if the DM will target the item then it becomes something of a liability. Are you certain of the source of this property? I have been unable to find it.
7he_professor: It sounds a little bit unfair of your DM to target items that complement characters' builds for destruction, but it is good to know little things like that before bringing a Kensai with Item Familiar to the table. Anyway, I do not have any other particular spells to point out, but I would like to emphasize a couple of general concerns to bear in mind while you do your shopping:
0) With the combined limitations of sorcerer spell selection and reduced spell slots, you really have to make the spells you learn and cast count.
1) Spells with a target of "You" or "Self" are powerful, but they present the dilemma of whether to cast them on yourself or your familiar. Spells whose target you can choose might suit your needs better, because you can cast them on yourself AND your familiar, OR on someone else who needs it more.
2) Touch spells can be shared with your familiar and can be delivered with a natural attack, such as the sting attack your "diety" happens to have; touch spells are also typically a good deal with regard to power/spell level. A very few touch spells have a duration, meaning that they can be used repeatedly; keep an eye out for these. On the flip side, if your familiar is not built to hit in melee (and to survive being hit) these might not be a wise investment.
You could also go for maximizing the use of your familiar (although most feats meant for that are kinda sucky), but there was a guide to that effect around....
Are you certain of the source of this property? I have been unable to find it.
Oh, I'm sorry. It's in Complete Arcane.
It's in Complete Arcane.
Thanks.
You could also go for maximizing the use of your familiar (although most feats meant for that are kinda sucky), but there was a guide to that effect around....
Now that... is a very helpful pair of posts. Many thanks.
The prerequisites on improved familiar make no sense. It says “compatible alignment, sufficiently high level.” There's no single alignment or level the prerequisites could be referring to.
For actually taking the feat, I think you really just need to meet the prerequisites on one of the familiars-- and since there are a few that come in at 3rd level, that just means you won't be picking it up at 1st.
For the metamagic adjustments on Deceptive Spell and Invisible Spell, I think it comes from the fact that Deceptive Spell could be used for framing enemies or just keeping yourself completely out of the fight as far as the enemies can see. Invisible Spell on the other hand you can still be seen casting, it's just that no one can see what happens afterwards. Not quite as useful so it ends up being something you can apply to every spell if you want.
The purpose of using a skillful weapon is to free you to put all your resources into spellcasting. If you are deprived of the weapon, you have not lost your effectiveness because you are actually a dedicated spellcaster, not a gish. You just have the ability to function as a pseudo-gish when you want.There's nothing wrong with a true gish, if that's what you want. I was just pointing out an option.
I see what you mean. This character is much more melee-oriented than your typical sorcerer, so the static BAB is far more useful to him, IMO. Thanks for the suggestion though.
The prerequisites on improved familiar make no sense. It says “compatible alignment, sufficiently high level.” As Balthanon says, you need to perform a ritual to acquire a familiar. The feat says it adds all the listed creatures to the list of familiars you can summon, not a single selected creature. At the time you take the feat, you don't single a creature out in any way. There's no single alignment or level the prerequisites could be referring to.
In all of my readings of the various Improved Familiar feats I have never seen a reference to specifying any one of the creatures on the list. Ergo, if your familiar is lost, you can undergo the ritual and summon whichever familiar you qualify for off any of the lists. Too cool!
7he_professor: It sounds a little bit unfair of your DM to target items that complement characters' builds for destruction, but it is good to know little things like that before bringing a Kensai with Item Familiar to the table. Anyway, I do not have any other particular spells to point out, but I would like to emphasize a couple of general concerns to bear in mind while you do your shopping:0) With the combined limitations of sorcerer spell selection and reduced spell slots, you really have to make the spells you learn and cast count.
1) Spells with a target of "You" or "Self" are powerful, but they present the dilemma of whether to cast them on yourself or your familiar. Spells whose target you can choose might suit your needs better, because you can cast them on yourself AND your familiar, OR on someone else who needs it more.
2) Touch spells can be shared with your familiar and can be delivered with a natural attack, such as the sting attack your "diety" happens to have; touch spells are also typically a good deal with regard to power/spell level. A very few touch spells have a duration, meaning that they can be used repeatedly; keep an eye out for these. On the flip side, if your familiar is not built to hit in melee (and to survive being hit) these might not be a wise investment.
I don't see it as unfair for the DM to utilize any and all methods of challenging the players, including targeting their precious items from time to time. It has shaped the players into ones that rely more on their wits and skill than on their magical items. I see this as a good thing personally and believe it is a balancing factor for classes that allow the PC to generate her own items; the fact that they may be taken away just as easily as they were created.
Excellent points otherwise! It appears I have some tough decisions to make and your input is most valuable.
Hm. Check if you can use any ideas from this.
You could also go for maximizing the use of your familiar (although most feats meant for that are kinda sucky), but there was a guide to that effect around....
Two amazing threads. Thank you for pointing them out.
Here's a question: if you could only have one 5th level spell-known, which one would you choose? I'm thinking Teleport, but would like to see your selections.
One might start with Teleport, but Greater Teleport is just a few levels off, so it's not a permanent decision. Fabricate requires a high craft check to build useful stuff (non-magical traps are a personal favorite) so it's more of a Wiz thing.
Wall of Force and Wall of Stone are quite tasty too. You can create stone with Wall of Stone and then use Fabricate to turn it into any stone-work of your choice.
Telekinesis is mainly useful for TK-specialists, even if it's an all-around fun spell for anyone.