I'm going to be running a solo campaign for a good friend of mine soon. Partly because our other friends are flaky, and partly because I want to playtest a new base class I built for him without having other players feel like I'm not paying enough attention to them.
Long story short I'm making 2 npc's that will round out the party, but I'm having a tough time coming up with a character to fill slot #2.
So far I'm planning on an Oracle who will be mostly party support/buffs and a little bit of healing and whatever debuffs I can swing for good measure.
my friend's character class is best described as a tome of battle-type melee fighter. It's more complex than that but it'd take too long to explain.
What would compliment that well? I was thinking an arcane caster or maybe a skill user, but I'm looking through my books and nothing is jumping out at me. The npc's aren't really there to outshine him, just smooth out the edges and help him on his way.
Any suggestions?
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I'd go for bard (for arcane buffs and skills). If you need an NPC to help him infiltrate, I'd say that's the way to go.
If you want to make sure they don't outshine him, I have a couple suggestions:
Make them squishy, squishy casters.
Make one his little sister or a macguffin, whom he has to protect.
Because at least the Oracle is going to be charisma-based, try making them of a race that's not accepted in society (like they could both be part-fey in a society that hates fey, for example); that way, the PC will still have to be the "face" for the party and will get the most interaction time with the world.
Or make one (or, heck, both) a potential love interest.
Remember that the NPCs are going to be boring if they're just faceless, personality-less droids. He'll be a lot less concerned with them "outshining" him if he's invested in their characters.
Hope this helps!
I'd go for bard (for arcane buffs and skills). If you need an NPC to help him infiltrate, I'd say that's the way to go.
If you want to make sure they don't outshine him, I have a couple suggestions:
Make them squishy, squishy casters.
Make one his little sister or a macguffin, whom he has to protect.
Because at least the Oracle is going to be charisma-based, try making them of a race that's not accepted in society (like they could both be part-fey in a society that hates fey, for example); that way, the PC will still have to be the "face" for the party and will get the most interaction time with the world.
Or make one (or, heck, both) a potential love interest.Remember that the NPCs are going to be boring if they're just faceless, personality-less droids. He'll be a lot less concerned with them "outshining" him if he's invested in their characters.
Hope this helps!
While a Bard is a great idea, there's just one problem. I really don't like Bards.... I know, I know, it's a terrible thing for me to say about such a flexible and amazing class, but my first character ever was a Bard and I was teased constantly. Call it gaming PTSD. >.<
I'm not honestly worried about the NPC's outshining him, I usually normalize NPC stats, don't really optimize them, nor even play them to their fullest potential. My NPC's are memorable characters, and useful, but the players are always better.
Verdict is out on potential love interest, we saw Immortals right after I told him about one NPC being an Oracle and after the movie he was already asking if he could tap that. God I love my friends.
What other class might you recommend outside Bard?
Gnomish Maneuver Master!!
Not sure why other than a little gnome, with agile maneuvers, doing a flurry and pulling down the bad guy's pants (entangle) then disarming him. Then the next round, the baddy has to use two move actions to rearm and pull his pants up, this of course provokes so our gnome friend can poke him in the eye when he bends down (blind), etc etc. What a delightful way to help a fighter out, and did I mention that it is a gnome doing it!
That made me giggle just a little bit.
Some ideas brewing in my noggin include a Monk/Wizard/Enlightened Fist (take THAT backwards compatibility!), a Ranger, and a Barbarian. Hrm.
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I like the monk/wizard idea, but it doesn't have many skill points and is really MAD. How about rogue/wizard going for arcane trickster? Ranger might work as well.
Fighter and oracle have the healing/buffing and melee covered, so what you really need is a skill monkey/trapspringer ( unless you're evil like me and plan on clobbering them with traps when they've got no one who can disable >:D )
What oracle mystery are you thinking of? If you do something like the Flame mystery you won't even need a blaster-wizard and can make the other one a ranger or even a barbarian (since they do have 4 skills per level).
If you're doing something like time or lore mystery, though, I'd suggest the arcane trickster to balance it out.
Here is a serious, kind of off the wall but could be fun (not as much fun as my gnome monk, but...)
An Adept and a Warrior. Just make them a couple levels higher, and give out a couple of free leadership feats to the PC.
Now he is truly the star, and you can make some interesting NPC's, that are following a younger, but powerful/promising leader. Give the NPCs a decently high INT and then you have 8 or so skills that they can play with.
Wow, I really like that.
I rescind my previous suggestions in favor of Vuvu's.
Malebranche, have I told you you are my favorite today?
Just to continue spit balling this idea
One I think I meant throw out some free teamwork feats, not leadership.
Obviously it would be changing the NPC classes, but that can be part of the RP that the PC is teaching and training the NPC's to work together. I would recommend the following, up to you how and when to award them (maybe after difficult fights where it would have gone better if only they knew how to do the feat.)
Back to Back-learned after an ambush from both sides of the road
Feint Partner-learned after fighting a particularly nimble opponent
Shield Wall-having to hold a doorway against tough odds
Duck and Cover-learned after fighting anything w a breath attack
Outflank-after fighting some kind of armored juggernaut
Pack attack-after fighting some kind of hoard
Combat Medic-After fighting a poison heavy fight
See where I am going with this? I think it could be fun. Just spitballing this, but what do you think?
Hevyyd
I'd love to know what you go with? What do you think of my NPC Class idea?
Oh baby, I come back to the forums and look at all these delicious ideas abrewing! I'll try and hit everything in order.
@malebranche Your right abut the Monk/Wizard, normally I always give my NPC's the standard elite array for ability scores, so even if I import Kung-Fu genius mr. Monk is still going to be WAY too MAD.
The Oracle was going to have either the Heaven or Life mystery. Heaven would let her do NASTY things with Illusion (pattern) spells, and since those spells are free I would have more slots to play with for healing/buffing/maybe a blast or two. Life would make her an amazing healer, but the class I designed for my friend already has a lot of self-healing potential, so I might go for a more offensive build in Heaven.
@Vuvu I love love LOVE the idea of using the Warrior NPC class and having the main PC train him to become a stronger fighter! OMG I can feel the plot hooks forming already! Love the idea for teamwork feats as well. Gaaaah, I'm so excited right now!!!
Excuse me while I go roll these guys up.
Malebranche, we win!!!
Feel free to name the NPC's Vuvu and Malebranche!!
Can you post the stat blocks of what you come up with in the end? I am very curious!