So, we are going to start RotRL in a few weeks and I'm totally undecided, what character to choose.
I got several ideas, but I wonder, what would profit the group.
As we had a rather conservative group in our last campaign, the DM agreed that characters might be a bit more off the line, so we ended up in getting:
- scarred witch doctor (witch archetype) - orc or half-orc
- rage prophet (barbarian/oracle) - undecided on race
- two-handed fighter - nagaji
- summoner - race undecided, the eidolon going for combat I guess
- paladin or magus - player hasn't decided yet, but surely will choose one of these
- rogue/wizard - ratfolk, maybe aiming for arcane trickster
and me.
So the group is
- missing a dedicated healer (that I don't want to play, at least no heal-bot, we had one in our last campaign and he rerolled, too boring and unneeded, but I'm not against the healer per se)
- missing ranged combat
- missing a tome of knowledge (as its recommended in the players guide)
- missing a "face" (as the maybe-paladin was our bard and face in the last campaign and I guess, he doesnt want the job again; the summoner-player never wants to be the face; the oracle/barbarian .. well "Hulk SMASH")
- missing a "real" arcane caster (can't judge, if the witch is arcane and full-caster enough)?
Such a big group missing so many things :)
Now I want to fill up as many needed roles as possible, with several restrictions on my side.
I like knowledge skills, because I'm the only one besides the DM really interested in the world and its background.
My last character was a (3.5) Ultimate Magus (lets just say really dedicated wizard), so I'm not looking for a "stand in the back and cast spells every round", because I've done that the last years :)
There are more than enough frontliners in this group (alltough this would have been my favorite, after the "always in the back casting" time).
So what are my ideas?
- Ranger (switch hitter type) - unchecked, enough melee, and doen't seem to fulfill any missing roles.
- Bard/Archivist or Archaeologist - unchecked, lorebook, but less healing than the other non-dedicated healers, could go ranged combat
- Oracle of Lore - healing, check; knowledges, check; "face", check; but another oracle?
- Cleric (dwarf, Cayden Cailean, with his god speaking to him all day long, or at least he thinks so, might be an alcohol problem, or maybe both) - healing, check; knowledges+face, half-checked, as there are just too few skill-points for a cleric
- Druid (menhir savant, for the connection to the old stuff) - healing, I guess half-checked; knowledges+face, no, not really - I was thinking about taking traits to get knowledge(history) and diplomacy as class skills*; also either a "stand in the back, casting every round" or "have an animal companion and be another extra-front-liner"
*I want the knowledge skills my characters "feels responsible" for, to be rather good at, as I got the feeling from some sessions of Carrion Crown, that the DCs for knowledges are rather high and half-dedicated skills are useless at all.
So, here I am.
Do I try to balance the group to much? Which of these ideas would fit in? What alternatives did I miss?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for the wall of text *smile*
Go for a straight Bard and take the Trait Thassilonian Scholar. Bards can take healing magic, so they're fairly useful.
That said, one of the more interesting characters in my group is the halfling Bard/Cleric who has leaped on several foes to grapple them (despite not having improved grapple) and has her Halfling Swearing Song to inspire people by. ;) You could go with a straight Cleric... Irori is the Goddess of Knowledge, and you could go with the Healing and Knowledge Domains... similarly you could take those Domains with a Cleric of Pharasma, Goddess of birth, death, fate, and prophecy. (I suggest Healing as the 50% boost to healing spells at level 6 is damn useful.)
Inquisitor with a bow. You get some good knowledges, some healing, some (often very) decent ranged combat. You can even be a competent face if not too MAD.
While I like the suggestion of Inquisitor(Erastil, with perhaps with a one level dip into cleric to get Guided Hand?), the oracle seems like it could be made different enough to not really step on the toes of the other one, since it's for a Rage Prophet.
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
I have to commit, three different oppinions don't help me deciding *smile* but I can judge the situation now somewhat better I think.
I like the inquisitor idea, but loosing the domain spells and the second domain compared to cleric *shrug*.
If I want to contribute to combat and not go melee too (seems useless with that group composition) I need somewhat ranged combat, which the cleric offers, if I go Erastil (which would be OK, as cleric offers the most wanted knowledges for me anyways [history, arcana, nature with Animal Domain, adding local with a trait is possible]).
On the other hand, inquisitor got the perfect class skill selection, great skill points per level and good weapon proficencies, they just tend to be MAD with my demands and are only 3/4 caster.
Based on my own tabletop RotRL game, my group is wizard-light and is now missing a cleric. I tend to play Jack-of-all-trades when I do roleplay, and that sounds like what you need.
Suggestion: start with arcane caster and then go for INT
Solution #1: Sorcerer with Celestial bloodline: Heal is a class skill, has a Heavenly Fire a few times a day to heal others, can cast Bless and Magic Circle Against Evil as they level up, conjure celestials at mid-level to substitute for holes in the party (aid, Magic Circle Against Evil, healing, etc.). High CHA means you're the "face" of the party. Part two: go for Bard to pick up arcane healing, Knowledge gathering, and support-from-the-rear tactics. Make the person a Varisian caravan heritage, and they can know Thallassion off the bat for all those Thallassion knowledge and history checks.
Solution #2: Wizard with Conjuring specialization. All Knowledge skills are good, choose Thallassion as a bonus language. Conjuring animals and celestials at mid-level can substitute for holes in the party (aid, Magic Circle Against Evil, healing, etc.). Then pick up Rogue or Bard for lockpicking or more Knowledge bonuses. Arcane Trickster helps with locked doors and distracting enemies. Your Diplomacy will be lower until you can get a Cloak of Charisma.
Multiclassing will mean you won't get Teleportation until a higher level. There are a lot, and I mean bookshelves, of wizard books in Rise of the Runelords, and not having an arcane caster means you waste seeing one of your characters become the "be all you can be" wizard by 10th Level or so. There is also an extremely hefty bonus available for a Bard in Hook Mountain Massacre that would be a crying shame to miss.
On the other hand, inquisitor got the perfect class skill selection, great skill points per level and good weapon proficencies, they just tend to be MAD with my demands and are only 3/4 caster.
The big winning points for the inquisitor is you can *afford* to have lower stats in several areas because your skill point advancement at base is 3x better than a cleric. Additionally a cleric can't afford to dump *any* stats without suffering horribly.
With their bane and judgements you can dish out crazy amounts of damage with a bow, far in excess of any cleric can dream (you'll even out do the fighters I suspect). If you take judgement surge at level one that's already adding +2 damage to all your arrows. At level 5 with bane you'll be adding 2d6+2 damage to your weapon.
The lower spell casting ability is a big drawback but you said yourself you didn't want to "always in the back casting".