Wrath of the Righteous party help.

[Lunchbox3000]

Hi guys still contemplating ideas for what to play for an upcoming campaign. We will have 4 possibly 5 PCs. I know we have an Oracle and a Paladin. Myself and the other guy are wondering what we should play to best fill our gaps. I contemplate an Alchemist(most likely Hyde style) or Witch as I am growing fond of them running RoW. I am also open to bombs. So we look to your wonderful breadth of knowledge for assistance in choosing. The other guy has no clue.

[Master of the Dark Triad]

You might want an arcane caster. A celestial sorcerer fits the theme nicely. Also, more melee might be nice.

[Lunchbox3000]

If it helps the cleric is going to be one of saranae. He will be rather vanilla probably high defense and he will be in melee with the pally whom I believe will be a vengeance pally.

[Cory Stafford 29]

Witch is good. I would suggest witch or magus and bloodrager. Summoner is also a strong choice.

[Lunchbox3000]

Not familiar with bloodrager. Any suggestions for witch? I always have a kind of mental block when it comes to non spontaneous casters.

[Cory Stafford 29]

I am not too knowledgable about witch archetypes. Just mainly get good hexes, (slumber, healing, misfortune, etc). Bloodrager is a hybrid playtest class for the Advanced Class Guide. It's really strong.

[Lunchbox3000]

I'll have to look but it will definitely need to be asked about. I have also contemplated Magus but I just don't feel it I guess.

[Lunchbox3000]

So I have been doing some more research. What do you guys think of a Sylvan sorcerer for WotR? I never noticed sorcerers could get an animal companion. Does a robe of arcane heritage make the animal companion essentially 4 levels higher than you with boon companion?

[Rerednaw]

Lunchbox3000 wrote:

So I have been doing some more research. What do you guys think of a Sylvan sorcerer for WotR? I never noticed sorcerers could get an animal companion. Does a robe of arcane heritage make the animal companion essentially 4 levels higher than you with boon companion?

I have not played or run Wrath so my advice is general and from reading the player's guide which if you have not already I strongly recommend.

Based on the "Core 4" premise.
You have a melee tank (Paladin)
You have a healer (Oracle)
You don't have a skill expert (Bard/Rogue)
You don't have an arcane (Sorcerer/Witch?)

What else did you want the sorcerer to do? Sorcerers are feat starved. You will be paying one feat tax (Boon Companion). You may spend one or two feats on Spell Penetration if you plan on offensive spells (demons->spell resistance) As for the robe interaction with your bloodline companion you'll have to ask your GM about how he feels about an animal companion 4 levels higher than the party.

Witches have Hexes (Su) which is a handy way of bypassing Spell Resistance...on the other hand many hexes fall under the enchantment/charm/mind-affecting category. And the range issue can be problematical when facing teleport at-will critters.

[Lunchbox3000]

I am not entirely sure what exactly I would have the sorcerer do. My original thought was I was going to do an Ice based caster but as I found out later they also have elemental resistance to it. Kinda makes me wonder about a caster's effectiveness in this campaign. I just feel most of our players typically veer away from casters.

[Major_Blackhart]

Hmm, someone mentioned Bloodrager earlier.
First I've heard of that. Is it an archtype or a spell?

[Mister Fluffykins]

Demons are commonly: immune to electric damage, resistant to fire/cold/acid. This leaves you with Negative/Positive and Sonic being your only available "common" damage types that are likely to get through - though bare in mind that resistances vary from demon to demon. Not all of them possess all of those common resistances, and some of them possess unique ones ontop of that.

This means that, if possible, you should stack on Knowledge (Planes) as best you can - a quick knowledge check at the start of a fight can help you identify what types of attacks will be best to use. Alternatively, you could go with my personal favorite type of spellcaster: the support caster. Buff your team mates, debuff the enemies, and alter the battle field to control the flow of combat - these small bonuses stack up real fast.

As for the Robes, I don't think they'd boost the level of your animal companion. If you don't mind being a human, and selecting a dog, horse, small cat, or bird, you could get your animal companion up to 1 level ahead of you with Boon Companion and the Huntmaster feat.

[Gargs454]

Generally for a direct damage type of caster, your best bet will be to maintain versatility in damage types. This often means reducing the damage per spell slightly but will usually result in more damage overall during the course of the campaign. As Fluffykins states, make your knowledge check at the beginning of combat and you'll know what types of damage will be less than stellar.

But yeah, if you want to be Sparky McSparkerson who does nothing but shock things with electrical attacks, you will probably be in for a long ride. Being able to turn that fireball into an ice ball will be very handy though when you run into that nasty fire elemental (just as an example).

[Seriphim84]

With an oracle and a paladin I would recommend a Wizard and a Ranger.

For the wizard I have two suggestions:
Abjurer, Banishment Wizard, remove demons from the world.
Conjurer, Teleportation wizard, call celestial help

I would also recommend making a holy wizard, with either the Mystery Cultist or Magaambyan Arcanist Prestige classes. I would not take the rift warded, you loose alot and all your powers on contingent on you being on your plane.

For the Ranger, he won't be as high ac but with favored enemies humans and Demons he will be very very strong. Could be archer or second front line. I would say stick with the core ranger.

[Rerednaw]

Lunchbox3000 wrote:

I am not entirely sure what exactly I would have the sorcerer do. My original thought was I was going to do an Ice based caster but as I found out later they also have elemental resistance to it. Kinda makes me wonder about a caster's effectiveness in this campaign. I just feel most of our players typically veer away from casters.

As others have pointed out, many demons are resistant to one or more elements. Or outright immune.

But few are immune or resistant to *all* elements. Hence the Admixture Wizard is a good fit. Granted a sorcerer isn't too shabby either. Even an ice-themed one in the face of resistant creatures.

With few exceptions casters are generally very effective. It really depends on the type. As damage-dealers they generally do better with area damage. As a sorcerer you also want to consider having a secondary role other than damage. Perhaps a few utility/buff spells. Since you were looking for an Animal Companion with the Sylvan Bloodline you can share spells and use some spells you normally couldn't cast.

If your group's campaign style doesn't favor casters than yes I would consider another class. Otherwise consider reading Treantmonk's guide or if you like blowing things up, Brewers Guide to the Blockbuster Wizard.

Rangers (with evil outsider as favored enemy) are also a recommended class per the guide. I suppose if you want to max that you could Ranger2/PalX your way up.

Anyway work with what you feel with grant you the most fun... :)

[Lunchbox3000]

Question what would make a conjuror wizard better than say a summoner? I'm assuming more versatility. Also how does one typically choose their spells everyday as I just foresee myself being left with ones I thought would be useful but aren't?

[Rerednaw]

Lunchbox3000 wrote:

Question what would make a conjuror wizard better than say a summoner? I'm assuming more versatility. Also how does one typically choose their spells everyday as I just foresee myself being left with ones I thought would be useful but aren't?

Conjuration far more than summoning critters. It is also:

Grease
Teleportation
Create Pit
Black Tentacles
Stinking Cloud
Web
etc...

Spell selection is tough. There are several approaches.

Many spells are multi-purpose (such as summon monster).
I tend to have 3 spell lists:
1 is combat heavy (when I know I'm going into a dungeon or a battlefield)
1 is general (day to day loadout to cover as many bases as possible)
1 is customized to a given situation (i.e. "We plan to explore an underwater dungeon that is known to block monster summoning tomorrow.")

In addition wizards can leave a few spell slots open and then memorize a spell on the spot (takes a few minutes, but if it's the only way to get past that next encounter...)

As a sorcerer you always have *1* spell list so you have to make it serve everything you want it to do.

Now there are ways around both limitations. Both Sorcs and Wizs have feats, items, and so forth that can compensate. For example a wizard could go with Preferred Spell(fireball) and not memorize a single fireball, instead filling his slots with general utility spells. And then cast fireball as needed.