Maybe a ranged character that has a spell list with cures on it?
Most if not all divine casters, plus the bard and witch, have that, it would fill in a gap, as would a ranged damager. I might be a bit wary of support builds, though--if you focus on support too much, it might end up leaving the barbarian as the sole damager.
Well archer bard isnt bad, good UMD access to heals. Probably make a switch hitter, especially for earlier levels.
You could look at the Sandman archetype as it gives you a good piece of rogue and allows spell stealing (so you could nab enemy healer spells or whatever spells) You can arch up to 30 feet away and still get a sneak attack (which the sandman gets some access to)
Ive seen some decent archer cleric or oracles done before too.
The oracle or cleric will have more spell power, the bard will be more fun to play, IMO and in a three man party fill in a few more roles.
The other option of course, is a Paladin, maybe a switch hitter using one of the archer archetypes?
Inquisitor is probably a good idea. You'll get teamwork feats that you can parasitise off of either the combat character or the caster character, you can easily use a wand of cure light wounds, and you can act as face depending on your domain/inquisition selection. Eventually you will be able to get spells that pass your teamwork feats around. (forget what it's called) that can be used to increase your buddy's caster level or your fighty's damage output/livability. You can change one of these feats a few times per day as a standard action, so you can always have the right feat for the right moment.
As with a Bard, you can make lots of knowledge checks easily. Unlike a bard, your buffs are mostly selfish during combat. This makes you a better melee character when you need to be. Divine Favor? Divine Power? That whole Bane class feature?
I've got a nice Arcane Duelist who might fit the bill - wide variety of spells, more spells per day than your typical Bard, effective in combat, capable healer, exceptional buffer, face skills that both those characters likely lack... something to consider.
Hmm.. as a good rule of thumb, you need someone to smack enemies around (barbarian), someone to make enemies easier to hit (wizard), and someone to makes everyone hit enemies hard.
Inquisitor is good with its teamwork feats. A rogue focused on butterfly sting might be good, letting the barbarian critical with a heavy weapon. Bards and clerics are always go to choices for buffs, and they can fill melee rules. Clerics could also summon. Druids can wildshape, heal, and buff. Saurian shamans make excellent melee druids since they can also summon dinosaurs as standard actions and get more powerful dino forms (and dinosaurs are both awesome and useful with lots of choices). Summoners could give more melee combatants and plenty of the great buffs before even the wizard would get them.
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Druid. Powerful. Healer. Good in combat and all the utility the wizard doesn't cover.
Druid is a good healer and if you're dead set against a cleric, a very solid choice.
That said, a cleric doesn't have to be boring at all. It depends on your concept. I once created a Lawful-Neutral cleric of a an Evil god whose shtick was wading into combat with a greataxe, killing his foes, then sucking the life out of their dying bodies to empower himself.
Luckily for the rest of the party, he lived by a very strict mercenary code which meant you could absolutely trust that once he'd taken a contract, he'd never turn on you. But the way he got things done wasn't always pretty.
Just remember that clerics can be about more than healing, even if they are responsible for healing as needed. The fact that they can substitute any non-domain spell for a Cure Wounds means you can prep all sorts of fun stuff and only burn spells for healing as necessary.
Still, I understand that clerics aren't for everyone. If not...druid.
Druid is a fairly solid choice, since it has much flexibility.
If one dislikes playing a Cleric (I wonder why...?), take a look at the Sorcerer counterpart to the Cleric, the Oracle. It can function very well in melee, have healing, spell casting capability, as well as have some skills or two.
Bard is another great one, and would probably synergize the best with the Barbarian. The Wizard can get some help from you too, although the Barbarian, if spec'd (and geared) right, would receive crazy bonuses.
Druid's pet will let a fighter flank. Druid also provides access to cure spells, which means wand usage.
Archer bard gives a pretty good damage dealer, as well as heals through wand/spells, Inspire Courage, party face, and I can pick up trapfinding through traits.
Cleric evangelist can basically do everything the bard does, but lacking in skill points, and not as good of a party face. The trade-off is that he can also have Animal domain to get animal companion.
I can't play a paladin. The lawful good thing just bugs me :( Inquisitors might be okay, but like the Magus, I'm not sure they make for a good 3rd member in a 3-man party. Haven't really looked into Oracles too deeply.
ender sandman bard archetype gets trapfinding and sneak attack... check it out
Archery focused/Switch-Hitter Inquisitor seems a good bet, Oracles and Clerics also.
Inquisitor could go with Healing Domain for Empowered Cures +50%, or Animal Domain for Companion.
Clerics are pretty versatile, the Evangelist especially. I wouldn't bother with a martial dip for this group,
certainly not if you can manage to find a sympathetic God to worship that has a good weapon and Domains you want.
If you just want Heavy Armor, I would just take it via Feat.
If you do go for Archery, you probably have DEX>STR and probably wouldn't want more than Medium Armor.
Rage Cleric.
Be out there on the frontlines with your Barbarian, Raging it up almost as good as he can, and healing yourselves after battle.
Gorum as a deity, of course, for that delicious Greatsword proficiency. Second Domain I'd say either Anger Inquisition (for maximum RAWRG) or War Domain for buffing and a little extra oomph in battle.
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Try a Crossblooded Sorcerer Deepearth Verdant Bloodline Bedrock Groveborn Wildblooded focused on Summon Monster. The combination will make all the monster u summon gain a DR/adamantine equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level (minimum 1) and at level 3 +2 natural armor, +4 bonus on saves against paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, and stunning. Other spells to consider would also be the Elemental Body and Form of the Dragon for some very nice melee potential when u get that high in level.
It's a tough pick.
Really it comes down to personal preference: Do you want to focus more on being a skill monkey/buffer or do you want to focus more on spellcasting and utility/combat shapeshifting?
Need a Jack (of Trades), and an urban campaign? . Go bard, grab leadership down the line.
Outdoor campaign? Go druid.
archer cleric of Erastil with Feather domain plus whatever tickles your fancy. or half-orc oracle of metal or battle. the only reason i wouldn't go druid, personally, is beacuse a cleric can heal without sacrificing spell slots with channels. potions and scrolls could overcome this, of course...so yeah, you have all kinds of options. Cayden Cailean battle cleric with brew potion (potions taste like different beers/ales)? hell, make an aasimar monk and tell them to heal their own damn selves. i'm all for party synergy, but if they don't need your permission then make what you want to play.
sidebar: necromancing clerics are great, but undead lord is not the best way to go about it. start with skeleton summoner and go from there.
Druid is a fairly solid choice, since it has much flexibility.
If one dislikes playing a Cleric (I wonder why...?), take a look at the Sorcerer counterpart to the Cleric, the Oracle. It can function very well in melee, have healing, spell casting capability, as well as have some skills or two.
Bard is another great one, and would probably synergize the best with the Barbarian. The Wizard can get some help from you too, although the Barbarian, if spec'd (and geared) right, would receive crazy bonuses.
Arcane Concordance would make both the Bard and the Wizard quite potent.
You got an anvil and a hammer and are missing an arm.
What secondary roles do the 2 chars fulfill? Probably this:
Wizard: Anvil (Arm)
Barbarian: Hammer (perhaps secondary Anvil if built right)
So third should be Arm (Hammer),I.e. buffer/enabler/healer with secondary combat potential.
In that line, how about the reach cleric build from the guide list. It is designed around using your turn for using spells, and then getting melee attacks through Attacks of Opportunity and a reach weapon. This allows them to break action economy even better than the magus. This way, they can spend their turn buffing and other such useful actions, and then still provide excellent melee abilities= Arm (Hammer) to me.
It works just as well with oracles I suppose. Oracles tend to be better when they specialize though. Part of me also wants a cleric with animal domain to also get another melee combatant. Something with a nice trip attack might be good.
I have built a nice Cleric(Crusader) of Erastil. I have Also used a Paladin or Ranger. They get the Cure Spells so can easily Wand. Can provide some form of buff. Paladin via their Auras and Rangers through Favoured Enemy if you take Hunter's Bond(Companions) or Flanking via Animal Companion. Taking Boon Companion gives you a Full Level AC.
Bards can be nice but I can't say much more as they are one of my last resort Classes...
Oracle might work as well.
Ranged Paladin would be my first choice, but I saw you weren't a fan of the class.
Second would be a Druid with an animal companion.
Both druid and bard can be real fine support archers and still have a lot of useful spells for the real bad fights.
Inquisitor with Bane can be real nice as versatile support hammer.
Personally, I'd go Archeologist bard. Kinda Indiana Jones.
Archeologist Bard/ Arcane Archer. Ranged support, healing, traps, face skills, and utility buffs freeing up slots for your wiz. Inspire courage is great and all, but the three classes that need it the least are barbarian fighter and wizard; archeologist luck on the other hand is exactly what you as a bard, need to keep up. Clerics and oracles are better healers, but I think bard is versatile enough to be even more viable.
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Seriously, I can't go to my DM and say "I plan on playing a crossblooded sorcerer deepearth verdant bloodline bedrock groveborn wildblooded focused on Summon Monster." I just can't do it.
I see a lot of people saying both bard or druid are good, so if I had to choose only between bard or druid, which one would you guys pick?
(I'm looking up Clerics also since so many people are saying to give them a chance, but I'd still like to know between bard and druid only.)
So why cant u tell ur DM that u want to play that. U will be the main defense for the wizard and ur self while shelling out nice damage.
Both a bard an a inquisitor would work well, but personally I think the inquisitor would probably be better. Inquisitor get better armor and weapon choices with their deities favored weapon, almost all ranged weapons and medium armor. Their judgments and bane give them great flexibility in combat and can be used in both melee and ranged combat. Teamwork feats also give them some extra flexibility.
Both the bard and inquisitor have the cure line of spells so can use wands for healing. The problem is that the bard has nothing else, while the inquisitor has the other healing spells like restoration and heal. Having someone able to cure ability damage and restore negative levels is just as important as healing HP. Scrolls work really well for these type of spells.
Both make very good skill monkey's but focusing on different things. The inquisitor can dump CHA and still act as the party face as long as he takes the conversion inquisition so may have a slight edge.
A bard is more useful in a larger party when his performances are boosting up a large number of people. With only 3 people you will not get as much benefit from bardic performances. An archeologist bard would probably be better for a small group and will also be able to deal with traps.
between bard and druid? i say druid, since your wizard is focusing on control. a hearty animal companion for extra damage, and plenty of good buffs from you. i'm not familiar with ranged druid builds, but i'm sure it's possible. i only say that because, again, with the wizard focusing on control you would benefit from some ranged damage.
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Scrap the Wiz, replace with Druid, and for the third take a Ranger to support both the Barbarian and the Druid. Seen this combo work REALLY well with my nine year old daughter as a Druid and my buddies as a Ranger and the other a half orc barbarian, with the animal companion and those three characters they crushed it as well or better than a lot of 4 character parties I've watched or run for.
Scrap the Wiz, replace with Druid, and for the third take a Ranger to support both the Barbarian and the Druid. Seen this combo work REALLY well with my nine year old daughter as a Druid and my buddies as a Ranger and the other a half orc barbarian, with the animal companion and those three characters they crushed it as well or better than a lot of 4 character parties I've watched or run for.
What is awesome about this post, is that your 9 year old daughter plays. My five year old has a super interest, but for now it's mainly all about the minis. Where else can orcs and zombies have a tea party hosted by a colossal blue dragon...
Sorry to get off topic, it just warms my heart.
Yeah, she's 10 now and currently plays a level 3 Elven Gunslinger, it's fun watching her lay down her 15' cone templates for the scatter on her Blunderbuss :)
Yeah, she's 10 now and currently plays a level 3 Elven Gunslinger, it's fun watching her lay down her 15' cone templates for the scatter on her Blunderbuss :)
Both my daughters play:
10 year old is an elf ronin11 year old is a whip master magus
Crossblooded: Take 2 Bloodlines at the cost of -2 to Will saves and less spells known per level.
Wildblooded: Variant forms of extant Bloodlines (Deep Earth has a Bedrock wildblood and Verdant has a Groveborn wildblood).
It's focused on the Summon Monster spell.
Still doesn't change that Wildblooded and Crossblooded is an illegal combo though, last I checked.
between bard and druid i'd take druid- i personally just think they're more fun and the animal companion helps in small parties (if you use a reach build for the druid you can cast spells while your companion attacks and still get to attack with AoOs).
that said, i also don't think cleric have to be boring. a neutral cleric of Gorum gets greatsword proficiency- you can pick up channeled smite (and channel negative energy) and guided hand to add Wis to attack rolls and smite damage to attacks, take destruction and ferocity domains and you'll really be pretty solid in melee (and can still pick up power attack to boot). you'll be able to buff yourself (and/or the barbarian) and memorize cure spells and you'll have the ability to pick up versatile channeling for more healing if you want.
It's focused on the Summon Monster spell.
And nothing else.