In the market for a buffer cohort


Advice


Hi all. I'm playing a Kingmaker game as a LN Battle Herald. He's King, extremely egotistical and a bit of a glory hog to boot (order of the Cockatrice). At 7th I will certainly be taking Leadership but I want a cohort that makes me look good so I was thinking of a buffer. I'm guessing that Summoner/Wizard/Sorcerer are likely the best bets but I'm not sure.

Wizard has more variety of spells and won't be too conspicuous, but a cohort smarter than me might get on my nerves. A summoner seems ideal, especially if he's a Synthesist and can serve as a durable flying mount.

Ideas?


It's really hard to say without knowing what characters are in your party.


Bards are really good at making you look better, and they're not as complicated to play as wizards. (They can be, but if you just want a buffer a bard blowing his trumpet before you and casting a few standard buff spells can make things very good.)


It's hard to say what the party will be composed of - we have a lot of churn in our group, both with players coming and going and people changing characters/dying. The way we play I wouldn't really rely on many buffs from other party members unless it was an expected combat.

Regarding Bard - would it be worth going with a Bard if I'm a Battle Herald anyway? None of the Inspiring Commands really seem to blow Inspire Courage out of the water (or even compete, really).


An Archivist Bard would be a good cohort since their inspire courage replacement (Naturalist) provides an insight bonus and so stacks with your normal inspire courage.


Do you want to make your character look good, or do you want the cohort to make you (the player) look good? A bard can make the whole party look good, which in turn makes you look good. A bard can also make only your character look good. A wizard can make you look good by saving the party, or it can make them turn against you because you're a one-man team.


I'd think about an oracle of flames. With the glorious heat feat he can deal damage, heal and buff you all at the same time.

errata version of glorious heat: wrote:

Benefit: When you cast a divine spell with the [fire] descriptor, choose a single ally within 30 feet that you can see.

That ally heals a number of hit points equal to the level of the spell cast and gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls until the end of its next turn

So he deals his damage heals you a little and gives you a +1 to hit.

And as he can chose his spells from the whole cleric list he can certainly learn all those nice buff spells, too.


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Straight up bard. In addition to inspiring courage, build the bard around aid another. Take body guard, combat reflexes, and give him a few magic items that bump the aid. With the proper build the bard can aid another to give you a +6-8 to your AC as an AoO plus using aid another on their turn to boost your to hit. Add to that the spell list of goodies and you have one nasty companion that can literally double your damage output in addition to being am all around skill monkey and utility caster.


Riffing on Lab Rat's suggestion, the halfling Helpful race trait would go well with that. Maybe add the Saving Shield feat for good measure.

Maybe a cleric of Shelyn with the Luck and Protection/Defense domains? (Bit of luck is really quite powerful.) There's also the variant channeling from Ultimate Magic; again, Luck and Protection look like good ones.


Ooh. Interesting suggestions and not at all what I guessed (I was thinking and Arcane caster with elemental protection spells, blur/displacement, fly, etc, but I suppose a lot of Arcane buffs are caster only too).

My character is completely a glory hog, so he wants a cohort that makes him personally look good - his cohort saving the party is a big no no. I've never considered a build based on using the aid action but I remember seeing the odd post about it on the boards.

I like the bard selection and, although the Archivist gives another buff I don't think I can turn down the Court Bard - making others look worse is just....priceless. The mockery ability is just absolu-freaking-lutely perfect for my char.

As a cohort would be starting at level 5 are there any ideas for a build? I'm not sure if my bard would respect a halfling enough to rely on him for help, but as a little comedy monkey who sneakily helps out behind the scenes......it keeps getting funnier. Kudos dear internet brothers!

Would it be too much to name him Patsy?


Halfling court bard named Patsworth Yogglebottom. You call him Patsy for short. (pun intended)


I approve!

And wow, Halfling aid builds look crazy after reading the Cautious Fighter and Blundering Defense racial talents (gotta love the flavor of the latter too). Simply by performing an all out defense he would give all adjacent allies a +4 to AC? Of course he would not get to make AOOs and Bodyguard would take a while to get. Bodyguard is likely the better route initially but a static +2AC for him fighting defensively later is nothing to sneeze at either.

Swift Aid, shield feats -> overwhelmed.


Definitely a Bard.

Make sure to give him a nice personality, your stereotypical minstrel sort who follows you around and makes songs about even your most trivial of accomplishments in a creepily high pitched voice.

"The store the store, he went to the store, to buy, a pail, of flooooour!"

"Putting on the armor, is what he's gonna do, put on the armor, but don't forget your shoes!"

"The orc, the orc, oh gods the orc, please get him away! No don't push me closer milord, he's much too tough for me to slay!"


There is a fighter archetype that might serve you, too. The weapon squire. Hhelp you do your job better. He does little than help you do your job better. Mix that with bard and the flagbearer feat.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Throwing Druid into consideration, take natural spell and your little bird drops spells on you while looking like nothing to be bothered with. Barkskin, all the stat buffs, plus entangle when insteaqd of buffing you want ot make the enemy look bad.


I like the little birdy that buffs, but I think anything else is just plain outclassed flavor wise by the Johnny Knoxville Halfling.

@Rynjin: Approved!

Scarab Sages

What about an evangelist cleric? He can do bardic performance buffs and he gets all the cool cleric buffs besides. Plus he gets armor, so he's a bit tougher than a bard.

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