A Wizard Helping a Barbarian


Advice


I have a bit of a problem. Our party's tank character is currently a barbarian with decent Con, and I want to keep her alive (after all, this is her first campaign). I plan to push her into taking Guarded Life, since we just reached level 6.

The real question here is what can I, as a Conjuration-Schooled Wizaard, do to help her out? My INT is 24, so I get plenty of 1st-and-2nd-level spells per day. I can think of a few things to help:
1. Summon a monster to soak up some hits
2: Bear's Endurance (or Cat's Grace?)
3: Haste, obviously, though +1 to AC isn't great

Where else could I go from there? What are some other options? Are there any good low-level Wizard spells I missed? Could my monkey familiar Aid Another, with no reach, and would that be idiotic?

Sorry if this kind of thread already exists. I couldn't find it. Also, PLEASE do not post build advice. We JUST passed the point in the game where the GM is no longer okay with tweaking characters. Wouldn't you know that only after that point do I discover the Invulnerable Rager archetype? But I digress.

Any help is appreciated!


Summon a flanking buddy is a good start.

Generally the barbarian uses its huge hit point total to compensate for low AC so enabling it to kill stuff quicker is the way to go.
Haste for the extra attack, Enlarge Person for more damage.
If you're invested in UMD, Lead Blades for more damage.
Slow to hamper the monsters - with your high INT the save DC should be fail-able.
Grease to make monsters fall over.
Glitterdust to blind monsters.
Etc etc.


Often times the best thing you can do to help a barbarian survive around level 5-6 is (somewhat paradoxically) buff the everliving crap out of her Damage. If she can kill everything around her with 2 hits, then she won't have to worry about taking as much damage from their attacks. In pathfinder, offense trumps defense the majority of the time.

In addition, as a wizard with 24 int at 6th level, your spell DCs should be plenty high to be throwing out some debuffs. I'll use an example: no archer will hit the barbarian if they're blind (glitterdust), melee will have a 50% miss chance. Also look at Create pit, Web, Grease, color spray, ray of enfeeblement, etc. If an enemy is blind, prone, and unconscious... then your barbarian isn't exactly going to have to worry about getting killed, now is she? In addition she can feel great because she's the one actually splatting enemies.

That being said, if you really want to help her survive purely from a defense side, then Mage armor, Blur (miss chance is often better than a futile attempt to buff barbarian's low AC), or anything that provides temporary HP/resistances/DR will help tremendously.

Hope that helps, if you want something more we're going to need more specifics about your build, her build, and the type of game you're playing in.


Heroism, haste, slow, protection from evil, blur, fly, protection from energy, Bulls strength, cast grace, Bears endurance and several others. What kind og help do you feel the barbarian need? What kind of situations dosent she handle well?
You Can suggest that she take the beast totem Line since that gives both AC and pounce. If she goes supestisious remember to buff her before the battle.


A few other useful low-level defensive buffs for a friend:

resist energy (communal resist energy can cover the whole party)
magic circle against alignment (whatever you are encountering most)
blur
displacement

As far as other tactics, as Stuart says, debilitating an enemy is the other side of the coin.


You Can also get some crafting feats and built stuff for her.
Bit if it is her first campaing also remember to let her enjoy the roleplaying without being overly helpfull.

Scarab Sages

OK, so, first off, a wand of mage armor is a great tool, because you can not only buff yourself, you can buff her when you are up against incorporeal creatures.

Assuming you are teleportation specialized you can buff your AC, draw your dagger and shift into flanking position from time to time. A shield spell or even a wand of shield is good for this - obviously use this trick with care.

Your main focus is battlefield control. This means that you are already optimized to help her out and to help her to kick @$$

One nice trick is to use aqueous orb to gather up a few bad guys and move them in front of her so she can use her shiny new second attack for the round - she'll enjoy that.

Pyrotechnics and stinking cloud are all very nice de-buffs for bad guys, and they provide cover and a "bad zone" on the battlefield. Glitterdust is also very good.

Spells to buff her:
Mage Armor
Darkvision
Protection from Arrows
Haste
Heroism
Blur
Displacement
See Invisibility (keep this on a scroll at all times)
Enlarge Person - remember the 1 round casting time!
Protection from evil/magic circle against evil
Rage
Keen Edge
Greater Magic Weapon

Check the durations and casting times on these buffs - many of them can be cast minutes or hours ahead of time - so they don't take up time in combat, others have long casting times so you want to avoid casting them in combat.

For example, Mage Armor last for hours, so you can cast extended Mage Armor on her a day ahead of time (if you know you are going up against undead), and save the spell slot. Same with Darkvision and Protection from Arrows.

Anyway, that should keep you busy. Hope that helps.


Thanks for the advice, everyone! Lots of solid tips.

I had been toying with the idea of being invisible all the time and using indirect spells, but debuffing does sound like a solid option as well. I guess I could just pick up a Mirror Image for myself and hope for the best, eh?

Speaking of my indirect approach, are there any Summon Monsters III or lower that have improved bull rush? It could make my Creat Pit that much better. I have a pretty good idea of what summons are best at general combat, but do any of you ever use them for bull rushing or grappling, or should I stick to flanking and trample?

PSusac, I actually just learned Aqueous Orb, and I look forward to adding your suggestion to my list of its uses.

Sorry Cap. Darling, she already took Fiend Totem for extra offence.

I can't believe I left Enlarge Person out of my list! I have totally been doing that. Thanks again, everyone!


Displacement, Displacement, Displacement.

This has saved our frontliners bacon more than any other spell I've cast from 5th to 11th lvl in our current campaign, particularly against the likes of dragons and other beasts with multiple attacks.

Also, as a Conjuration Specialist, remember to use Grease on big brute types with big weapons. They usually sport fairly weak Reflex saves so Grease the weapon and watch your GM grimace. AP's, I've noticed, like to present most big brutes with big weapons and feats like power attack, vital strike and improved crit. Without their chosen weapon though, they tend to fall apart. Grease has prevented a lot of damage coming our way, all for the cost of a wittle 1st level spell.

I'll also doff my hat to Aqueous Orb. While I don't get as much use out of it these days it's been a great spell for running over multiple enemies, repeatedly until they fail, providing cover against ranged attacks and generally just providing an intimidating barrier against our foes.

edit - oops nearly forgot: Telekinetic Charge. Give your barbarian an immediate attack out of turn AND set him up for a full attack on an enemy out of reach. Will become less useful later if he goes the pouncing route but my guys love it. ;)

Shadow Lodge

Rumtum wrote:

Displacement, Displacement, Displacement.

This has saved our frontliners bacon more than any other spell I've cast from 5th to 11th lvl in our current campaign, particularly against the likes of dragons and other beasts with multiple attacks.

Exactly.

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, but none come close to how much of a difference Displacement will make.

In the OP, you said "I want to keep her alive..."
This is all you need.

By the levels that it gets negated by enemies that have True Seeing and Blindsense, your high-level spells will make you a much more interesting target than the Barbarian.

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