Its no secret that I'm totally jazzed about this upcoming AP - assuming I can convince My wife to run it even though it is technically 'my turn' - and we've been putting together characters as we always try to do with upcoming AP's.
I'm going to be running a bastardization of my Barbarian Tank with a 1 level dip in Living Monolith. VERY excited about him. Two of the other players are planning on running Summoners - one a halfling Summoner who rides about on a giant scorpion (his eidolon) and the other a half-elven Master Summoner who's eidolon will actually be a scarab. Those are the two characters I wanted opinions on.
As far as the halfling, we're thinking about letting him take the traditionally half-elven Wild Caller. He's not planning on using any of those 'magical' bells and whistles for his eidolon anyway and Summon Natures Ally seems to suit the theme of the character better anyway. I can't think of any real balance reason not to let this happen - can anyone else?
The other wants his eidolon to be tiny. He likes the idea of a scarab that can hide in his robes and be set loose as a spy, relaying back to him all that he sees - all you need for this is a high perception, stealth, eventually fly and, of course, a tiny sized eidolon for which there currently exist no rules. Small size can be had for free, without evolution cost, while both Large and Huge evolutions can be gained, so we thought that we'd allow Tiny to be acquired for 2 evolution points, applying stat modifiers to it as if it had had reduce person cast upon it - thoughts?
The final question involves our fourth character - the player isn't set, but is leaning pretty strongly towards playing a Bard and she's thinking about using the Diva archetype. Her concept is playing her character as a sultry dancer and courtesan, one whom is growing in renown, who revels in her prestige and popularity and has her sights set on using that notoriety as well as her own charismatic skills to get involved in the local politics, if not becoming an open power in her own right, at least getting close to those who are and doing a little ruling from behind the scenes. At least to start - who knows what direction the AP might take her? The thing is, none of us have ever played a Diva - would the archetype be a good one for this AP (from what we know of it) and would it suit the character concept well?
Alright, so I got the Summoners hammered down - both are going to be Half-elves but with completely different play-styles. I'm using the 'Tiny' evolution culled from Summoners unleashed which should work out fine. Very cool builds, by the way, and really good examples of the diversity possible within the Summoner class.
So the Barbarian-Living Monolith, the Summoner with his giant scorpion and the Master Summoner with his little scarab spy are sorted out. The final character right now is torn between a 'Dancing' Diva and a Cleric of Sarenrae. We feel like the group would benefit from a Bard's buffs and face skills, but at the same time without too much meta-gaming, there is some concern about ability damage and various undead. We're considering going with a standard Cleric that takes the Glory-Heroism and the Healing-Restoration subdomains, focusing more on buffing and healing with very little direct combat utility (just basically serving as interference for the Master Summoner). The biggest 'con' if you want to consider it one is the player much prefers spontaneous casting and doesn't care much for Oracles.
What do you think - Diva or Cleric?