Playing Skull and Shackles. Here's the party so far:
Nasty knife fighting half-orc rogue. I think he's a scout, too. Pretty tanky dude for a rogue, I'll give him that. He may have fighter levels.
Human Swashbuckler, all the way. By "All the way" I mean the three levels we're in so far.
Ratfolk plague-bringer alchemist. Bomb-focused. Very good at dealing damage.
....
then there's the Human Necromancer Wizard. He's going to be leaving the party soon, moving in a months.
I WAS playing a bard, till I died. Also, they suck. I did NOT have fun playing one, despite my best intent. I don't do so well "behind the scenes", and buffing your party for +1 at low levels isn't all that exciting.
I also, in one bloody session, had a goblin barbarian and then a goblin fighter-rogue die back to back. (S&S is hard!)
....
So, we don't have a healer. That's hurt us so far...quite badly.
Before I realized that the wizard was leaving I was gonna play a life oracle. But, also, we're losing our primary caster in 1-2 sessions. And, frankly, I wanna be able to do more than patch people up.
So, yeah, control and healing, I was thinking Mystic Theurge...but I know this GM will not go for that early-entry racial cheese. (Even I wouldn't allow that as a GM, and I'm way more liberal than he is.) I don't know if I can handle the low-level suckage. I mean, I like the idea of a MT, but how do you play one -at low levels-?
Druid doesn't seem to fit the setting, and I doubt the GM will let me have some of the cooler animals on the boat.
Pure Cleric...well, maybe. I never felt drawn to the class as a whole, and I fear I'll end up a healbot like the Oracle of life.
Witch is a maybe as well. They're way too subtle, though. I like the directness of wizards' magic.
Pure Wizard, as much as I enjoy them, I feel, would steal the thunder of my friend's last two-three sessions as a necromancer. I want him to enjoy being the only wizard, and therefore, "the man", before he leaves.
and finally, for casters, Summoner. Frankly, I say #$%^ the paperwork that comes with playing one of those. I really don't feel like printing out stat-blocks of everything I can summon, with augment summoning and all the other modifiers I will inevitably choose, etc. No, no, no. I don't even know if the GM will allow one, given that he forbid the dawnflower and dervish when I played a bard because he thought they were too powerful in melee for a non-pure-melee.
...
As for races, I don't want to be the same as any of the other guys. Just a quirk I have. I may be able to get away with a quasi-rare, like the ratfolk did, but I'm probably not gonna pull off a svirneblin (sp?) or drow noble anytime soon. He already said -NO- to Undine, Merfolk, and anything else that, in his words "could just say screw this to being press ganged and jump off the boat"
....
Those are my thoughts so far. Help?
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Using the Forge of Combat metaphor of Hammer, Anvil, and Arm, you party currently has three hammers (rogue, swashbuckler, alchemist), one anvil (the wizard), and no arm. Soon the wizard will vanish, leaving your group with three hammers, no anvil, and no arm. If this situation isn't adjusted your group may struggle.
Groups without Anvils: Groups without anvils typically end up having an overabundance of hammers with one or two members playing the part of arms. These groups typically have fast, furious fights where the group takes a lot of damage. In these situations the arms often take on a reactive role providing healing and buffs as able while the hammers frantically try to end the encounter quickly. Depending on the nature of the hammers this often drains the arms very quickly of resources or forces the hammers into more and more defensive roles draining overall resources more as the group is not ending encounters efficiently enough.
Groups without Arms: Perhaps the most forgiving of the three major imbalances. These groups usually spend more resources than necessary to finish an encounter. When they don’t they exist on a razor’s edge where an enemies passed save or a characters failed save can mean the difference between failure and victory. This is much worse in groups that lack the means to magically heal themselves and are thus forced into shorter adventuring days or burning wealth on tons of cure light wound wands.
It sounds like you'd like to play an anvil (e.g. another wizard), but don't wish to discomfit your buddy. Another helpful choice would be to play an arm. If you do this then the next person to die might consider creating an arcane caster built as an anvil.
How about a negative channeling battle cleric? You'll be a full divine caster and a powerful melee combatant, yet there's no chance you'll be stuck in the (non)role of healbot. If you choose the Evangelist archetype you'll buff your many martial allies better than a Bard, and could even channel positive without risk of being pegged as a 'healbot'. Your Wizard buddy will remain 'the man' until he departs :-) This type of character fills the arm role with aplomb while also being able to fill a secondary role as either hammer or anvil.
Now, Evangelist Clerics make terrific summoners, but you already said you don't much like summoning. Summoning fills the all-important anvil role. They can also be built as a decent offensive caster or as a solid martial beatstick. Magda is the latter, an arm & hammer build who played like this at low levels. This probably would not be your best option, as your group already has a surfeit of hammers.
A Witch would also be an excellent choice as your group's new anvil. You will be a full arcane caster with terrific debuffs and some healing ability. You won't step on the wizard's toes, as these classes play quite differently. You would be an anvil able to double as an arm, which is exactly what your party needs. Some people describe the Witch class as 'Mystic Theurge as it should have been'.
Some other options that go a long way towards covering the roles of both anvil and arm:
1. A Hangover Cleric makes both a terrific anvil and a highly effective arm. The 30' radius damage-and-debuff variant channel effect, which scales with level, is tremendously effective at locking down foes. The best negative variant channels are Rulership & Envy, with several others nearly as good. Any cleric is a natural for the role of arm.
2. A Heaven's Oracle is a standout at the anvil role. Super-powered Color Spray ends combats. It's a terrific way to take prisoners for ransom or other mischief. Coup de grace is optional. As a full divine caster this PC also makes a fine arm.
3. Theologian Cleric archetype can be a first-rate armored blaster. The Fire domain gives you Burning Hands & Fireball as Domain spells. The Theologian archetype lets you prepare as many domain spells as you want. Add metamagic Rime or Daze and you have excellent battlefield control ability, which nicely fills the role of anvil.
Just a recommendation, and one that'll keep your paperwork low. We had a Master Summoner in our Sn'S group who was absolutely amazing, and all he ever summoned was elementals. Water elementals to battle foes underwater, air and fire elementals when battling ship to ship and earth elementals when battling on land. Threw in a handful of Lightning elementals and Mud elementals from time to time to keep things interesting. So go Master Summoner and focus on a single type of creature - trust me, there's an elemental for every need, and being able to send them in to soften up a group of enemies will go a long way towards keeping your party from taking too much damage.
As far as his eidolon, he just built her to be a scout - a dark vision having, telepathically communicating, flying, swimming, water-breathing scout - and she was insanely useful.
Then there's the spells you get to cast as well, things like Create Pit and Dimension Door (for boarding) and so on. Ever summon Black Tentacles on the deck of an enemy ship?
All in all highly recommended and throughly play-tested. If you'd like to see a build just let me know.
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I second Wiggz' excellent suggestion. I can't think of anything more useful for S&S than a disposable eidolon built as a telepathic underwater/flying scout. My only concern about this build is that it might somewhat overshadow the other characters. E.g. it might start to feel like they were the Master Summoner's protectors ...
An Oracle of Waves also has potential in an oceangoing campaign. Someone else would need to fill the anvil role.