What does this party need?


Advice


So I'm starting to get bored of my skald, and thinking about talking to talking to the GM about arranging for his heroic death so I can bring in something new. I'm not totally sure what the party needs, though.

Generally speaking, I like to feel like I'm contributing in a meaningful way, and I don't really anymore. My raging song is nice, but we're level 10 and everyone's base proficiency is getting so high that my buffs start to feel like icing on the cake. I certainly have the lowest damage in the party.

More than that, I've always been a fan of trickster characters, and I do like to offer some sort of support, whether it's battlefield control, healing, or crazy buffs.

The current party is....
A barbarian/alchemist. Just focused on hitting stuff as hard as he can with his axe, and does it pretty well.

An investigator/monk. Dude has a crazy AC, and enlarges for some impressive flurries.

An arcanist. Occultist archtype. Summons a lot and is otherwise your typical arcane spellcaster.

A slayer. Dual-wields kukris. Likes to sneak and get crits.

This all in mind, what would you add to the party to both have a good time and round out the holes?

Sovereign Court

Well if you want to do a bit of everything, Go Life Spirit Shaman, use your wandering spirit to grab different spells when you need them, well that's pretty much it.


Well, the obvious answer is some sort of divine caster. Maybe an Inquisitor or Hunter? Ranged damage appears to be needed, as well.

Ye olde Forge of Combat says you've got an Arm, an Anvil, and 2 Hammers. I'd lean towards Hunter to provide Hammer/Arm functionality.

Grand Lodge

Spell Focused Druid. Probably a Storm Druid. Your party lacks a real healer (I am assuming the alchemist and investigator have infusion or you guys are often resting for a night or 3 for no other reason then you all are hurt)

You can back up the Arcanist at higher levels with spells like Call Lightning, Call Lightning Storm and (not sure, but fairly sure) Chain lightning is just around the corner. Add in you can spontaneously cast those damage spells, you can set your daily spells around buffs and heals.

At 10, you are also able to spend all day in wild form, meaning for a storm druid, usually, you are well outta reach of your foes. (Personal fan of Air Elemental, especially the large size + call lightning interaction, though many will say to go earth elemental)


The party has NO cohesion right now. Neither of the brewers have infusion, but they do heal themselves sometimes. It's essentially a collection of four hypercompetent characters that start to run around and do their own thing when combat breaks out. My skald has been our primary healer, using a wand of cure light, his own spells for cure mod and greater path of glory.

I was looking at divine casters. What are your thoughts on the Hellknight Signifier PRC? It would be wildly appropriate in the campaign right now.

I know it's not a healer, but I was also thinking about a sandman bard as a party toolbox, since everyone else is very focused on dealing damage.

Dark Archive

The party needs healing, buffing, and status removal. CLeric or life oracle would work. Warpreist if you want to fight more. You can get into signifier with either arcane or divine, so magus or cleric are good ways to get into the class.


Oracle is a good choice. Archaeologist Bard may also help fulfill your stated fondness for "trickster" characters while still offering some healing and being able to help with traps.

Sovereign Court

Personally I would recommend a cleric with the kind of party you just described. As a cleric, you will be able to switch up whenever you want, cleric can leaves spell slot opens during the day and prepare them when necessary relatively quickly.

Should be noted that hellknight signifier armor stuffs would benefit more a magus than a cleric. Since Arcane spell failure and the likes is not a problem for a divine caster.


Cleric is what I'm leaning towards right now, or possibly just warpriest. Would signifier offer enough beyond staying vanilla cleric to make it worthwhile? I'm talking to the GM, and he'd probably be a cleric of asmodeus, as the Hellknights are about to become unlikely allies for the PCs.

Sovereign Court

for a cleric? Yeah you aren't losing much, vanilla cleric doesn't have any peak ability, beside getting better domain powers, which you will get with the Hellknight signifier while still increasing your spellcasting levels.


You could potentially dual class as a Cleric and a Cavalier and get healing and battlefield control that way.

Depends on what level you would start at really.


I'd be starting as a 10th level character, so I could go cleric 5 / signifier 5. I loose 1 point of BAB over straight cleric, but get some cool abilities. 25 point buy. Standard wealth for a character of that level, but I think the GM will let me use crafting price for items if I take a creation feat - I'm waiting for him to get back to me on it.

Thing is, I've never played a cleric before, so I'm not really sure how to build them. How much str do I need? How much con? How important is Cha? Are my save DCs as important as they would be on a wizard? What feats do I take?

EDIT -- While we're talking about the class, do you know if the "rounds per day" of the signifier's Assiduous Gaze ability would be calculated with only my levels in Signifier, or with all of my class levels? I would normally assume it's just signifier levels, but half your levels in a 10 level class, on an ability measured in rounds, seems pretty low.

Sovereign Court

Depend on the kind of cleric you are building but Signifier is obviously for a battle cleric kind of build.

STR > CON/WIS > CHA would be the stat priority pretty much for a battle cleric. Cha is only taken into consideration because some of your hellknight signifier abilities require some charisma.

The vanilla/support cleric is WIS > CON > STR>CHA, just put on some armor and do some casting like summoning monsters (Sacred summons, summon good/evil/neutral depend on your alignment).

Best part, as a prepared spellcaster, you can literally switch and change your role every day, as you have access to all the spells on the cleric list. At higher level, even a basic support cleric can become a battle beast with the proper spells.

You are 10th level, would recommend to always have blessing of fervor prepared, its easily the best buff in the game.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Maybe a cleric or druid or oracle archer? I think the favored class bonus for oracle for elves works really well with a Life oracle's channel energy ability. And elves get longbows and shortbows for free.

And by archer, I mean just use a bow. You don't have to spend tons of feats on archery. In 3.5 I made a real effective elf druid archer that used produce flame with Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot.

Maybe focus on battlefield control? Unless your arcanist already does that and/or your other PCs are a bunch of crazies that run around with not planning or coordination or cooperation.


There is pretty much ZERO coordination in this party. Sometimes me or the arcanist try to suggest a course of action, but the barbarian really buts heads against the latter, and will often intentionally do the opposite. He's already lost a hand that way, but doesn't seem to have learned his lesson.


As people have said - consider what role is needed and what you want to play. Divine casting is a notable hole, and one with lots of options

Cleric is rarely a bad choice, and the Arm role can benefit a party with this many hammers. It still pays to specialise though - a sword & board Combat-focused cleric can be a million miles from a Reach cleric or a caster Ecclesitheurge. If you're primarily a caster build then save DCs (& Wis) matter. If you're mainly melee, healing and buffs then Str and Con take higher priority.

Level 10 is a pretty solid point where full casters start to break away from everyone else in power level, as even Sorcerers and Oracles have level 5 spells. Building a Divine Support full caster of any flavour should offset the party nicely and make the most of casting.

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