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| #1march1studiosSep 23, 2011 10:19:43 | A bit of of context: I love this game. I started playing with 4e, but when that game broke up, I fell into a 3.5e game with some pretty great vets. I'm the player with the least experience - a lot of these guys have been playing for a decade or more, but they're a ton of fun. The thing is, up until now I've been playing it pretty straight - straight cleric, straight druid, straight fighter - and while that's fun, I've slowly been opening myself up to variant and prestige classes as I'm getting more comfortable with the game. But it can be a bit overwhelming with the options. We're about to embark on a new campaign, this one heading purely into the Underdark in Faerun. We were told to make a Level 8 character, must be good aligned (lawful neutral is as far down the alignment scale we can go), and we were given 27,000 gp to gear them up. Awesome, right? I think I've built something pretty solid, but I'm looking for some experienced suggestions (I've never played a game beyond lvl 12), tweaks, or some ideas about building on what I've got. DM's not a stickler for the rules, but plays within them. The only time we allow for rule alterations is if we can find errata that sets a precedent, or the flavour backstory for the change is good enough. Background story is important to this crew. I've committed myself to playing the healer (but as we all know, clerics can be so much more). Books available: All Non-setting books are good. Only Faerun Setting books allowed. Online errata is available. Couple of parameters: - It's Underdark, so gotta have Darkvision. Natural is better. - Healing has been an component of every game I've played with these guys. They love being hit hard by the DM. - Planetouched, lesser has been vetoed. DM felt that the trade off for the LA is not equivalent, and the passage is a little too sparse. - Ability scores - we roll 4d6, take best 3. We were given a reroll for any score under 9, and split the difference. Here's what I built: Cloistered Cleric 6/ Radiant Servant of Lathander 1 Male Aasimar (LA +1) Ability Scores STR 12 DEX 12 CON 15 INT 16 (15 +1 Lvl 4) WIS 22 (18 +2 Asimar, +2 Periapt of Wisdom) CHA 16 (14 +2 Aasimar) Saves FORT 10 (7 + 2 CON, +1 Cloak of Resistance) REFX 5 (2 + 1 DEX, +1 Agility Armor, +1 Cloak of Resistance) WILL 14 (7 + 6 WIS, +1 Cloak of Resistance) AC 26 (10 + 1 DEX, +10 Armor (+2 Agility Heavy Plate) , +3 Shield (+1 Heavy), +2 Bracers of Armor) Base Attack +5 Feats Extra Turning Extend Spell Divine Metamagic Domains Sun Renewal Knowledge Gear Agility Full Plate +2 6,150 GP Bracers of Armor +2 4,000 GP Crystal of Screening, Lesser 1,000 GP Gauntlets of Energy Transform 1,000 GP Heavy Shield +1 1,171 GP Flaming Heavy Mace +1 8,312 GP Crystal of Return, Least 300 GP Periapt of Wisdom +2 4,000 GP Cloak of Resistance +1 1,000 GP Total Buy: 26,933GP (under 27!) Skills I'm not going to mark out where I dumped all my skill points, but it's been spread out between Con and Spellcraft, and then evenly distributed throughout the knowledge domains and healing (little bit in diplomacy and speak language, decipher script) Goals/Notes/Plan I wanted to essentially make a heavily armoured spell caster. A real tank - heavy artillery, that's heavily armoured. I've got pretty low HP (42), so the idea is to *not* get hit. And then just flood the field with healing or force, depending on how it turns out. That being said, he's not defenceless - and when I hit 8, the plan is to take Persist Spell, and then power it with DMM and coat myself in either Magic Vestment or Divine Power all day, every day. I'll probably take 'Knowledge Devotion' after that, and then I'll make a pretty versatile character. Good healing, Radiant Spellcasting, and don't bother stepping in my square or I'll crush you with my mace. I also wanted him to be valuable for knowledge - the Lore thing is going to be essential in the Underdark with all of the stuff we're going to fight/get. I'm hoping that I can convince the DM to let identifying stuff roll under that a bit with some knowledge checks. Not sure where we're going to find pearls in the Underdark. I'm planning on Radiant Servant for four to six levels, and then I'll probably grab another PrC. Not sure which. I definitely want the disease immunity (chicken soup don't cure mummy rot!) I chose Radiant Servant for the Armour profs, and some of the class features. We agreed Lathander was okay as an alt to Pelor as there's allowances for other gods in Greyhawk based on the Sun Domain. I would have gone Horus-Re, but the Renewal Domain is too hard to turn down (spells for the domain are awesome, and the 1d8 bounceback if dropped to 0 is an amazing insurance policy with no feat burn.) Questions: Do I bother with the Feats I got, and concentrate more on spellcasting stuff? Is there a better way to do what I've done? Am I screwing my BAB by going this way? What do you think??? Thanks! |
| #2Tempest_StormwindSep 23, 2011 14:21:56 | A bit of of context: Welcome! Yes, it can get a bit intimidating once you get that sort of freedom. On the flipside, as you grow more comfortable, you'll appreciate the control and flexibility. I'll see what I can do to help. We're about to embark on a new campaign, this one heading purely into the Underdark in Faerun. We were told to make a Level 8 character, must be good aligned (lawful neutral is as far down the alignment scale we can go), and we were given 27,000 gp to gear them up. Awesome, right? I think I've built something pretty solid, but I'm looking for some experienced suggestions (I've never played a game beyond lvl 12), tweaks, or some ideas about building on what I've got. Strictly speaking, you can be "the healer" by kicking ass and making chains. Show that to your team and you'll see what I mean - you'll heal by preventing damage in battle, and healing it after battle. As Slagger's fond of saying, an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Books available: All Non-setting books are good. Only Faerun Setting books allowed. Online errata is available. Without the lesser planetouched, I'm not sure the +1 LA is actually going to be worth it. It'll REALLY set you back, especially as a primary spellcaster. If you need darkvision, there's plenty of races that get it at +0 LA, although very few will have the same feel as the aasimar. The Forgotten Realms best choice is probably the Gold Dwarf - no Charisma penalty. If you'rewilling to template, consider Dragonborn. You have a link to the Lawful Good side of the alignment spectrum anyway, and the benefits are amazing for a cleric. If you stay with Aasimar, exploit the daylights (see what I did there?) out of your Outsider type to make it count. Ability Scores You rolled freaking amazing, and distributed them pretty much exactly as I would have. I'd've considered putting the 15 from Int into Str instead, unless skill points are tight, though. Saves Bracers of Armor provide an armor bonus, just like your plate mail, and don't stack with it. However, for the cost of a +2 Bracer (4000), you can afford a +1 Ring of Protection and a +1 Amulet of Natural Armor, which gives you the same bonus and will stack. Don't worry about the amulet competing for space with your periapt -- you can just make the periapt a +2 Wis, +1 Natural Armor amulet. The DMG suggested it was possible, and it's explicit in the Magic Item Compendium. Base Attack +5 Divine Metamagic needs to be combined with a feat you already know to work - check the Complete Divine errata. Divine Meta: Extend is pretty poor; I presume you're saving up for Divine Meta: Persist, which requires Persistent Spell beforehand. I don't know how you can get it, but the cheap way to do this is to take the Planning domain, which gives Extend Spell as a bonus feat. The Renewal domain is not worth it, so if you can swap it for Planning, it'll solve your problem right there (you'll have room for Persist at level 3). Sun isn't worth it either, but you're taking Radiant Servant, which isn't that bad as far as cleric PrCs go given your stated goals. Gear Usually it's a better idea to get small bonuses of each type rather than bigger bonuses of a single type - more cost-efficient that way. The Bracers I identified above are one swap, for instance. Flaming is a bad choice, even for clerics. Swapping it for another +1 ability would probably be better. My suggestion? Warning. This is best on your gauntlets - you're always "holding" them, so you get a continuous +5 Initiative that way - but you've got room on your morningstar. Alternatively, if you're in an undead-heavy campaign - and the Screening crystal suggests that - Undead Bane is worth its weight in gold. Skills ...If you did this, there's an alternative for your Knowledge or Renewal domain - Knowledge Devotion, in Complete Champion. Goals/Notes/Plan See above for my note on timing with Persistent Spell; you can't get Divine Meta before it. Alternatives to Identify can be found in Complete Scoundrel with skill tricks, or by spending 2000 gp on Gloves of Object Reading (not a true identify, but can give you a lot of information, and are useful for far more than this). I'm planning on Radiant Servant for four to six levels, and then I'll probably grab another PrC. Not sure which. I definitely want the disease immunity (chicken soup don't cure mummy rot!) There's a good run-down here on cleric PrCs. I chose Radiant Servant for the Armour profs, and some of the class features. We agreed Lathander was okay as an alt to Pelor as there's allowances for other gods in Greyhawk based on the Sun Domain. I would have gone Horus-Re, but the Renewal Domain is too hard to turn down (spells for the domain are awesome, and the 1d8 bounceback if dropped to 0 is an amazing insurance policy with no feat burn.) I would beg to differ on Renewal. The spells are meh at best, and the ability is weak even at first level, especially if you're aiming to Not Get Hit and prevent damage by smiting first. However, the subbing for Lathander is fine - Morninglord of Lathander is an option with this, although I forget how good it actually is (and I don't have the book handy). Questions: Your base attack is not an issue once you get access to Divine Power, although to really take advantage of it you need Power Attack and holding your morningstar two-handed. You'll probably need to slap Animated on your shield for this. I would focus more on spellcasting, at least as a main goal, and let your Divine Persist buffs carry you through the rest of the day. (Note that you REALLY want things like the Incense of Meditation, the Prayer Bead (Karma), and the Ankh of Ascension - between all of these, you'd get +9 to your caster level for a few minutes once per day. Those few minutes are used to cast your persistent buffs.) If you find yourself in combat often, all you need is one feat (Power Attack) and you become a pretty damn good frontliner. Hope that helps. |
| #3march1studiosSep 23, 2011 15:51:11 | It does. I'll respond more fully later, but definitely glad I asked. I'm going to read through everything you've linked to, and I may have some more questions based on that. Thanks! |
| #4Maat_MonsSep 23, 2011 18:47:16 | You can ask about the other +0 LA aasimar. Alternately, ask him to trim aasimar down until he feel it's reasonable for +0 LA. If it's allowed, the nightsighted trait would be great. It wouldn't be a bad idea for someone in the group to be a half-drow with the drow eyes feat (Races of Faerun), the deepvision feat (Races of Stone), and the nightsighted trait (Unearthed Arcana). That's 160-foot darkvision. If you're going to fight a lot of undead, check out heavy aspergillum (Races of Faerun). It's a heavy mace that can deliver holy water along with an attack. It's 88 gp more than a regular heavy mace, but it could be handy. |
| #5march1studiosSep 24, 2011 13:16:18 | Okay. I've been reading through a lot of this stuff, and I think I'm back to 0. ;) First off though - thank you, both of you. Great suggestions, and really helpful. I probably would have been better off asking you guys to help me build a Cleric 8 with an aim to higher levels - because now I'm not sure what to do. Some specific responses to your suggestions thus far: Undead It's not that the campaign is going to be particularly heavy in undead - it's going to be a big Monster hack and slash, for sure. That's just more my player experience/my clerics disposition - I just hate undead. Especially incoporeals. In a previous adventure, our team was held to a standstill by three Allips, and my Druid was decimated. In another, we nearly lost a fighter to Mummy Rot because I forgot to pack 'remove disease/curse' in going into what we knew was an undead heavy area. We managed to keep him buffed and pushing saves until we could hustle him out to an NPC healer. That, and for 1000gp, a negative 5 on their attack to me translates as a +5 AC bonus against them. Race I like the flavour of the Aasimar, but I wonder if I'm being a bit 'starstruck' with them. The LA hurts as a spellcaster for sure, but the ability bonuses and the additonal Race features are nice (resist 5 on three eneregy types is nice). That and the Darkvision. I've been having trouble locating specifics on the advantages of the Outsider type though. The other pro for the Aasimar that it's the only race I can think of within Faerun that'd get me Darkvision and access to a Sun Domain (For Radiant Servant). I'm pretty sure my DM specifically said no Dragonborn/Warforged, and is standing fast on the the LA +1 for Aasimar (I asked about the one Maat_Mons linked to. It was a nice try). I don't mind the Gold Dwarf, but I'm going to have to come up with a pretty signifigant way to get my Dwarf to worship a Sun Domain. I mean, come on - it's a Dwarf. I can do it - it would just change the flavour of what I'm trying to build - and that might not be a bad thing. A cleric Dwarf that could be a 'guide' through the underdark? Not a bad idea. (Knowledge stuff, Earth Stuff, Crafting maybe?) Half-Drow - one of the other players already grabbed that, and it's just not... you know. That's gonna be his thing, and I don't want to piss in his cornflakes. Domains Planning Domain is impressive as far as the feat goes, but I know the spells are going to be basically useless to me until I get higher up. DM's hate giving up surprises around the corner, and one of the previous DM's is still a little pissed at me when we used Scrying/Treewalk to basically skip past a grind and catch a villain with their pants down. Everyone else was pretty chuffed though. So here's the thing - if I stick with the Radiant Servant PrC, I have to have Sun as pre-req. Which I don't mind because I think it's a great domain - especially when it comes to the undead. Which again, I ****ing hate. ;) But in the Faerun Pantheons, that limits my choices to Lathander (Good, Nobility, Protection, Renewal, Strength, Sun), or Horus-Re (Good, Law, Nobility, Retribution, Sun). Not exactly stellar choices, and burning a feat to substitue domains seems like a waste and cheese (and it can to me. I might be wrong about that though. I'm not familiar enough with the Amaunator/Lathander thing to take Amaunator' as a diety. That and it says his former domains include Sun/Planning - which concerns me, because if he's dead or he's not in those domains anymore, it's not worth it. The other gods with Planning don't really have much I'm interested. The other gods with Planning, other than Helm - meh. Classes/Direction What I was starting with was someone that was a knowledgeable spellcaster - reliable for buffs, for a bit of battlefield control, and wicked awesome at making the Undead run like Donovan Bailey, and protected. I'm not interested in having my cleric do too much in the way of melee combat - we're probably going to have a wizard a rouge and two fighter-types that'll be responsible for the front line. I think I'd like a guy who knows what the symbols are on the wall, what the Goblins are saying down the hall, where to find the treasure, and what it does (I like those gloves you suggested). So I'm open to suggestions - if there's a better way to play the Aasimar, or if there's a way to get another cleric benefical race Darkvision with as few feats/sacrifices as possible (and without blowing my entire wad on a pair of goggles) - I'm all ears. If there's a better PrC/Domains for a Dwarf, I'm open to that too. I'm going to keep looking and try building some other options, but I'm totally open to suggestions. Gear If all you'd done is pointed out the thread about the Healing Belt, I'd still have to thank you. I'm totally going to have to regear. And I know better. I totally forgot about the bracers not stacking with the Armor. I'm dumb. Thank you for the suggestions - that was my aim. Lots of small items that equal up and add on to the point where I'm nigh invulernable. ;) Thanks! |
| #6aelryinthSep 24, 2011 14:23:48 | It's noteworthy that Amaunator was 'reskinned' as being 'reborn' as Lathandar for 4e. So the two are related, and Lathandar jumped over to LG once it was confirmed. I'd say go with Amaunator...it's basically Lathandar's 'old name'. ==Aelryinth |
| #7Maat_MonsSep 24, 2011 14:26:55 | It's possible to get darkvision with a feat. The planar touchstone feat (Planar Handbook) keyed to the blinding tower (Planar Handbook 162) gives you darvision out to 60 feet. Each time you actually go to the blinding tower (which you don't have to do even once to get darkvision), you gain charges of a healing light beam. The blinding tower has a definite light-in-the-darkness feel that seems to suit a sunlight-themed character in the underdark. Do you think you DM will allow you to buy a ring of the darkhidden (Magic Item Compendium)? It's 2,000 gp to be invisible to darkvision. |
| #8march1studiosSep 24, 2011 14:43:06 |
I'll check it out!
As long as it's not setting specific outside of Faerun, yes. |
| #9march1studiosSep 24, 2011 14:43:52 | It's noteworthy that Amaunator was 'reskinned' as being 'reborn' as Lathandar for 4e. So the two are related, and Lathandar jumped over to LG once it was confirmed. I'd say go with Amaunator...it's basically Lathandar's 'old name'. Let's hope. I'm going to ask, but I won't know until tomorrow, as DM is out of touch for the night. |
| #10KruskSep 24, 2011 15:43:57 | I don't mind the Gold Dwarf, but I'm going to have to come up with a pretty signifigant way to get my Dwarf to worship a Sun Domain. I mean, come on - it's a Dwarf. I can do it - it would just change the flavour of what I'm trying to build - and that might not be a bad thing. A cleric Dwarf that could be a 'guide' through the underdark? Not a bad idea. (Knowledge stuff, Earth Stuff, Crafting maybe?) Not sure how gold dwarves differ, but IIRC they live super deep? Easy way to get him into the sun domain. He saw it for the first time, and it was way beyond what the stories he had heard described it as. He has devoted his life to bringing its light to the underdark. |
| #11march1studiosSep 25, 2011 8:37:51 | It reads like you are pretty married to the idea of being a cleric, but if I may, can I suggest you look into taking a few early levels of Ranger? It's a good suggestion. I think what I meant by a 'guide' through the Underdark is more of a raw knowledge thing, not a survivalist guide. More of a 'See that monster? I read that it's got a weakness for cookies.' 'See the runes on this chest? It'll explode if you open it from the top.' The Favored Enemy might be a nice added bonus though. |
| #12march1studiosSep 25, 2011 11:12:12 | Sweet! |
| #13march1studiosSep 25, 2011 12:57:38 |
Thanks! My girlfriends dice - she picked out this set that for everything but the d20, seems to always come up on top. Thank you all for the help/suggestions/ideas. I'm definitely taking everything into account and combing through the books. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to even just look at this thread. So here's what I'm going to do. I've read through a lot of the suggestions on here so far, and I'm definitely going to make some changes and alternate builds later tonight. I'm going to try one build with what I have, and changing gear, feats and adding some skill tricks in, with some minor changes to domains and see what I end up with. I'm probably going to refocus him a bit to be a bit more melee/healing with some knowledge backups. I think the level adjust is going to kill my ability to be a primary caster, and worry more about buffing and combat. The other build will be using a Gold Dwarf, where I'm going to focus heavily on the knowledge/skill tricks, and multi-class/PrC where I can for some added spellcasting/turn undead bonuses, with feats to help with buffing, and probably focus on those two things - buffing and spellcasting. So the offer is out there for you to build your own cleric healer with the rolls/restrictions I already have. Rolls are 18, 15, 15, 14, 12, 12 Setting is restricted to Faerun (Races of, Players Guide, Magic of) - no Ebberron or Greyhawk etc, though errata that would allow you to make small adjustments from there is allowed (i.e. Radiant Servant of [Sun Domain] was Greyhawk Errata). Other books that are not setting specific are allowed (except where races are concerned i.e. no Dragonborn, Warforged). Starting Gold: 27,000 GP spend it as you wish - but spend it on yourself. Each party member is being recruited from different areas of Faerun, so they don't know each other/have any prediliction for equipping one another. Requirements - Campaign will be 97.5% in the Underdark, so Darkvision is a must. (We had a discussion about light spells, and agreed that would make that character a beacon of aggro.) Get it however you like. Have fun! And thanks again! |
| #14sirpercivalSep 25, 2011 13:59:39 | Maybe it's my own personal bias towards summoners, but a summoner would be able to fill both roles. Summon a unicorn to do healing, summon dead celestial monkey to scout and find traps, and anyway the best healing is having the opponents do damage to summoned creatures instead of the party. Plus, if you go into Malconvoker there's a lot of flavor there, using evil creatures to destory evil creatures. For more ideas in this vein, check out the Malconvoker Handbook: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758... |
| #15march1studiosSep 27, 2011 14:36:05 | Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions! I've tried to take into account as much as I could, and tweaked my builds a bit here and there. I think I've built two solid characters that will benefit a party going into the Underdark. I realize that neither of them is optimized per se, but for the flavors of the character and the role within the party I want to play, I think they're both pretty strong. I've sent the char sheets to my DM for selection, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. (Titles link to GoogleDoc sheets). Khaldun Massari - Aasimar Cleric of Horus-Re Khaldun is pretty powerful, but still pretty inexperienced (Level Adjusted). He's able to cast powerfully (High Wisdom), and focuses on dealing out damage and trying to keep his comrades boosted as best he can by quickly casting a few buffs as combat initiates (Quicken, DMM feats), and using his knowledge from years spent cloistered (Knowledge Devotion feat) to aid both himself and his team in finding the weaknesses in his enemies. He favors Horus-Re and believes by bringing his light to the Underdark, he can burn out evil (Sun Domain), while nobly inspiring his comrades with his words and courage (Nobility Domain). He's an icon of Divinity. I attempted to keep him pretty balanced for combat - I've decided that burning three feats (DMM, Extend, Persist) isn't valuable enough to just buff, or amp one person. If the case is he needs to up his attack bonus, he has the knowledge devotion feat. He'll probably concentrate more on firing off a few spells, and in the event of undead, that's when he'll really shine. (PUN INTENDED). He'll be competent in healing via spells, but that's about it. He'll focus more on being a combatant to minimize damage inflicted on any one party member. By the next level, he'll be immune to disease, and I'll probably continue to focus him in a balancing role. Torrak Goodoath, Dwarven Cleric of Vergadain Torrak Goodoath is a bit of an oddity within his clan, and his church. While he shares concerns over the dwindling dwarven empires, He believes that reaching into the past is the way to re-ignite it's glory. He's devoted to a God that is not popularly worshipped (Vergadain, Trickery, Luck), for one. And for two, within that domain he's not overly concerned with accumulation of wealth in terms of money. Because of his obsessions with the obscure, with magical items, and with the glory filled histories, he's entranced with the idea of heading into the Underdark with the hopes of finding old relics and treasures for the height of the Dwarven Empires, and bringing it back to inspire his people. Torrak is pretty squishy for a Cleric. He'll rely more on cunning, skills and his array of items to keep himself from getting hurt, and doing his best to keep his allies up and running. He'll stick to the background, using invisibility spells and his ring of Darkhidden to keep out of the mouths of creatures in the dark, and use his knowledge (Ancestral Knowledge, Collector of Stories) to aid in the fight. He'll be able to alleviate ability damage, heal with wands, and best of all, spontaneously cast any of his domain spells, especially things like confusion to make sure his band wins through. The next level I'll add 'Magical Appraisal' to his skill tricks (need 12 spellcraft, can't until lvl 9), so there's no wasting money or time on identify spells. I'll probably PrC into Contemplative for at least one, but I don't have much of a plan beyond that. He'll be primary spellcasting, buffing and healing. He's got Boots of Dimensional Stride (60ft) in the event something does try and hit him. Yeah, you heard me, he's a runner from melee. |
| #16march1studiosSep 27, 2011 22:55:28 | Planar Touchstones, Ring of Darkhidden, and all Augment Crystals got vetoed. |
| #17aelryinthSep 28, 2011 20:35:23 | He vetoed augment crystals? feh. Fighters never get nice things. Anyways, there really is no greater power for the cleric then Persistent spell, so I expect you should re-evaluate over time. Are you using the druidic line of regeneration style healing spells (the vigor line)? (I forget the exact name.) The mass light version is persistable on ALL PARTY MEMBERS. Likewise there are several party buffs that are Persistable (one concerns saving throws, the other that boosted haste spell). I dunno, having everyone walking around with regen/1 all day seems like a really, really good use of persist. ==Aelryinth |
| #18march1studiosSep 29, 2011 1:58:30 | He vetoed augment crystals? feh. Fighters never get nice things. Persist was vetoed. Almost vetoed Divine Metamagic too. Almost. Wasn't happy about the whole quickened spell thing, felt it was too overpowered until I pointed out that: - Has to burn 2-3 feats to even quicken a spell without a penalty - He has to burn 5 turns for one quicken spell (Which translates to 3 spells a day with the amount of turns that the character has). - He has a limited number of spells. I then compared it to fighter/ranger feat chains. We had a character two campaigns back that all he had to do was shift 5 and got some kind of massive skirmish bonus. EVERY time. No limit. Multiple attacks. The crystals I get. 1000gp for +5 AC vs incorporeals? Ghost Touch is like 10,000 GP. 300 GP to skip the quickdraw feat? Yes, they're limited, but they're also crazy good in their own right. And I inquired about the Malconvoker route, but the class is ... the whole pacts with the monsters and fiends thing didn't fit with the party thing. He's created his own PC (NPC?) to 'organize' the adventure and send it off. Didn't feel like it was in line with the 'call for good aligned adventurers.'. Next time thought. Seems like an interesting character to play. |
| #19KruskSep 29, 2011 9:30:46 |
Vigor, and Lesser Vigor. |
| #20aelryinthSep 29, 2011 22:12:18 | Ghost Touch is an effect that is absolutely useless except against incorps. That means in 99% of the battles, it's useless. +5 AC against incorps is nice...until you remember they are hitting TOUCH AC. So, they are still going to hit you. And, it's useless in 99% of your fights, again. Meaning that 99% of the time, you spent money on something useless to you. IF you get Ghost Touch armor, it's still useless 99% of the time, but then you get the FULL AC benefit. Or, you could cast mage armor or use bracers of armor, and get the same damn benefit, and not spend money on a gem. Oh, right, not a caster, shucky darn. Quick Draw for 300 gp is no different then a familiar that grants Improved Init stacking or Great Fort stacking. It shouldn't be a feat...it's only useful IF you have to draw multiple weapons while moving, or draw and make a full attack while NOT moving...or if you are throwing lots of things. It's a dink feat, a 'feat tax'. augment crystals give melees something of what spellcasters can do...the ability to tailor a weapon to the situation for minor cost, then put it away and tailor to something else. And if they have Quick Draw, they don't have some other effect. Only one gem at a time, remember. Ask your DM to reevaluate Augment gems. Remember, they are restricted by the potency of the weapon they are on. Making your warriors reliant on spellcasters for weapon buffs is irksome, and they have to choose between the gems, remember. ==Aelryinth |