I will be DM'ing this AP in January and my guys are starting to ask for party recommendations. There will be 5 PCs. One will probably be a Ranger, another a Paladin and a third some sort of mage. Can anybody recommend what classes they have found that worked or are necessary and what classes didn't work or aren’t necessary? I don’t want to have a DM NPC as I am new to DMing (this will be my first AP)and playing the Shiv’s NPCs will be enough.
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Well of the three you have listed that covers most of it. All left is someone needs to play a healer type and then someone that can disable traps/locks etc. A Witch with the right hexes could fill in as a healer, instead of a druid or cleric. Mostly because of the Paladin, between them they should be able to heal. Though a druid should work fairly well in this AP.
Also keep in mind the whole AP isn't out yet so hard to say what may or may not be needed yet, for the whole AP.
Similar to what I said in the other thread: you need someone to play the role of "fixer." This means pretty much everything the Cleric does except for hit-point recovery. You need to cure diseases, poisons, curses, etc, like no tomorrow. A Witch can't do that. Luckily, a Paladin can.
Also, this campaign really needs a skillful character. Rogue is preferred of course, but you could make it work with a Bard, Monk, Ranger, or Alchemist if you build them right.
Finally, equpiment works a little differently in this AP compared to previous. There's a ton of treasure, but there's limited access to shops to hawk it for GP and then buy your own stuff. So you might want to stay away from concepts that are really dependant on getting a specific peice of gear (ie don't take Weapon Specialization).
We have an all dwarf party (dont laugh this was almost an all halfling party)
Druid
Ranger
Paladin
wizard
Monk.
we have found so far we have had every situation covered.
The druid and paladin are enough healing with out too much healing.
there is very little crossover of skills or walking on anyones toes.
everyone has their glory minute, and everyone but the wizard does decent in melee.
we rarely have rogues in our party.
the monk took disable device as a skill
the magical traps we leave to spell casters to handle.
ranger started with abberations as his first enemy, then moved to magical creatures, monstrous humanoids will be the next one (character fanicies himself as a 'monster slayer')
Wizard is an evoker... good balance on fire power
almost everyone can shoot something well.
we have found ALOT of use so far, for distance weapons and more than one pitched battle (thanks to inventive use of entanglement) has been carried out down to the last projectile weapon... it was a blast!
We have an all dwarf party (dont laugh this was almost an all halfling party)
My hat is off to you in a gesture of respect, sir. Not many GMs can stomach a one-race party.
Needless to say, their Knowledge: Dungeoneering is probably in the stratosphere.
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Hi guys. I was hoping to get input for myself in this thread as well, please?
Have this game starting up in Dec and was planning on making an archer cleric for the serpent skull path. Biggest problem for me is, I have not played a cleric since 2nd edition.
I was thinking either Elf or Human, cleric of Erastil. 20 point buy.
S:12 D:14 C:14 I:7 W:16 Ch:12 (prior to racial modifiers)
Using the Plant and Feather domains.
Rest of the party so far includes: Sorcerer, Paladin, Cavalier, Druid, and 1 unknown.
Does this build sound like it would work out for the party? Or would you suggest changing to a different class due to the Druid/Paladin combo already in the party?
. Biggest problem for me is, I have not played a cleric since 2nd edition.
I was thinking either Elf or Human, cleric of Erastil. 20 point buy.
S:12 D:14 C:14 I:7 W:16 Ch:12 (prior to racial modifiers)
Using the Plant and Feather domains.
Rest of the party so far includes: Sorcerer, Paladin, Cavalier, Druid, and 1 unknown.
Ok, heres how you do this (in my humble opinion) had i had a character to make, and knew then what i know now (without revealing any spoilers)
ELF Cleric/Bard/Mystic Theurge:
Definately start out as a cleric, but bard would be just as good your choice.
20 point buy stats:
STR 10
Dex 14
con 10
int 10
wis 16
chr 14
most AP goes to 18th level max:
so you will be a 7th cleric/7th Bard/4th level mystic theurge
over the course of leveling you will get 4 ability increases:
youll be casting as an 11th level cleric and an 11th level bard.
11th cleric only gets 6th level spells, 11th bard only gets 4th, so you are set for stats there already, but i suggest maxing up the charisma (bard abilites and chanelling)
the elf will end up like this?:
Str 10
Dex 16
con 8
int 12
wis 16
chr 14
so your down one HP? take toughness, now your up 2.
yea its neg 1 on fort saves, so you could drop your int to equal out your con, your option, figured the plus 1 on skills might be better.
anyway the elf will start out with sword, armor and longbow, with its dex it will probably be as good as or the best archer in the group for many levels.
youll be able to do alot with skills and abilities,
i would go erastil because as an elf you dont need the extra longbow proficency.
instead i would take calistria, for the knowledge and trickery domains, or desna for the liberation and travel domains.
desna also lets you get the starknife which is both a melee and ranged weapon, so that gives u the option of being able to both get attacks of opportunity as well as ranged ability, if things get too close quarters for the bow.
calistria and desna both get the luck domain which might be something to look at.
if you take travel or trickery domains you might want to go 8th level cleric (and only 3rd mystic theurge) because they both and decent 8th level domain powers.
anyway the options are limitless, and in the AP youll really like the whole bardic knowledge cleric combo, not to mention being a good fighter in the first several levels.
Do this as an elf.
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 8
WIS 17
CHA 12
Ends up
STR 10
DEX 16
CON 10
INT 10
WIS 17
CHA 12
Do this as a human.
STR 12
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 7
WIS 17
CHA 12
Ends up
STR 12
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 7
WIS 17
CHA 12
Int 7 because a cleric gets 2 + Int mod skills. 2+(-2) is 0, but minimum 1. And the human skill bonus gives you 2. So, it's just like having a 10 Int and not being a human.
You could also do variations. By 18th, you'll have miracle. You could conceivably get up to 5 stat bonuses in the game (4, 8, 12, 16, miracle). You could then do
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 7
WIS 17
CHA 13
and go +1 wis, +1 cha, +1 con, +1 wis, miracle! +1 wis. Could end the game at stats similar to these if you get enough cheddar by 18:
STR 10
DEX 22
CON 20
INT 7
WIS 26
CHA 20
I see your entire group has low skills, however. (2+, 2+, 4+, 4+). A bard could fill the same niche, be better at archery and generally make your entire group an ass-kicking machine. But then your druid would have to use healing, and druids sometimes become crybabies when healing is concerned.
I'll add a vote for a cleric. Channel energy at low levels with selective channel is keeping my group alive right now. Human with extra channel makes it even better.
Hey, don't they get the Heal skill too? Just a thought - I'd spend a skill point on that too.
Have fun.
~D